A dictionary of Confusable Phrases: More Than 10,000 Idioms and Collocations

live a cat and dog life • live a dog’s life
live a cat and dog life —(of two people) engage in constant
quarreling (also: lead a cat and dog life): The couple had lived
a cat-and-dog life almost since their honeymoon.
live a dog’s life —(also: lead a dog’s life) lead a wretched un -
pleasant existence: Warr, unemployed and homeless, was left to
live a “dog’s life,” which ended in an unmarked pauper’s grave.
live by oneself • live in oneself • live to oneself
live by oneself —live alone: For twenty-two years Junker lived
by himself, completely alone in rooms designed for a non-
existent wife and children.
live in oneself —(also: live within oneself ) rely on oneself for
ideas, beliefs, etc.: They show us a man ... who lived in himself
and for himself. All his opinions were his own, and there is
no recorded instance in his long career in which he sought or
desired counsel from others.
live to oneself— be a loner; shun the company of other peo-
ple: He shut himself up at the age of forty-five, disgusted, as
he said, with his fellow men and determined to live to him-
self.
See also: live with oneself / live within oneself.
live in a fishbowl • live in a glass house
live in a fishbowl (also: live in a goldfish bowl)—have ab so -
lutely no privacy: Life on campus can be like living in a fish-
bowl. Everyone knows what everyone else is doing.
live in a glass house —be particularly vulnerable to criticism
(with reference to the proverb “he who lives in a glass house
shouldn’t throw stones”): Before we criticize, we should ask,
“What role did I play in creating the condition that I choose
to criticize?” …We all live in glass houses. Let’s take care in
deciding when and how we throw stones.
live in charity • live on charity
live in charity —live in the state of generosity and love
towards other people: We all have the task of trying to live in
charity with one another.
live on charity —live on money, food, etc. provided as help
to the poor: The family is one of several in Darwin living on
charity.