exist


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exist on borrowed time

To live or exist in a temporary and/or tenuous position, which may come to an end suddenly and abruptly. The small aboriginal population has been existing on borrowed time since the invaders began colonizing their land. Accidents and disease can strike so unexpectedly that it feels like we're all existing on borrowed time.
See also: borrow, exist, on, time

pardon me for living/breathing/existing/etc.

An angry, exasperated response to a criticism or rebuke that one feels is unwarranted or unjustified, especially since they believe they did something very minimal or nothing at all. (Any verb that approximately means "living" can be used after "for.") A: "Would you please just sit down and stop getting in my way?" B: "Well, pardon me for breathing!" You don't need to get so upset, I was just suggesting you ask for directions. Pardon me for living!
See also: breathing, exist, living, pardon

Pardon me for existing!

An angry, exasperated response to a criticism or rebuke that one feels is unwarranted or unjustified, especially since they believe they did something very minimal or nothing at all. A: "Would you please just sit down and stop getting in my way?" B: "Well, pardon me for existing!" You don't need to get so upset, I was just suggesting you ask for directions. Pardon me for existing!
See also: pardon

If God did not exist, it would be necessary to invent Him.

Prov. People need a deity to worship. (This is an English translation of a quote from Voltaire. It is often parodied, using a person's name instead of God and implying that the person is somehow necessary.) The atheist tried to convince Jerry that God does not exist, and that people should not waste their time worshiping Him. "But you can't stop people from worshiping God," Jerry replied. "If God did not exist, it would be necessary to invent Him." The unscrupulous mayor was such a convenient scapegoat for the city's problems that if she had not existed, it would have been necessary to invent her.
See also: did, god, if, invent, necessary, not

hand to mouth, exist/live from

Living with a minimum of sustenance or support. This term, which dates from about 1500, implies that one has so little to live on that whatever comes to hand is consumed. “I subsist, as the poor are vulgarly said to do, from hand to mouth,” wrote the poet William Cowper (1790).
See also: exist, hand, live
References in periodicals archive ?
Vacuum does not exist, although we see the spreading of the rays of the sun simultaneously with the rise of the sun, and the body does not move or travel a distance except in time.
IBN Sina--Al-Biruni correspondence--VII
There exist triangular grids for which there is no through-edge Hamiltonian path (previously known result).
There exist rectangular grids for which there is no Hamiltonian path or cycle of any type.
5] proved that, for grids consisting of triangles, a Hamiltonian path always exists under very mild conditions.
The main result of this paper is the proof that there always exists a through-vertex Hamiltonian path in grids consisting of triangles or tetrahedra, under very mild conditions.
Hamiltonian paths through two- and three-dimensional grids
The scope of what constitutes an "agreement," "understanding," or "commitment" evoking a determination that a prohibited plan among the parties exists is likely broader than whether a legally enforceable contract exists.
In the absence of a legally enforceable contract among the parties at the date of the spin-off, the regulations should provide that other concrete evidence or tangible proof demonstrates that a commitment to act or plan exists to effect a change in control of the controlled or distributing company.
Implicit in TEI's recommendation that there be a commitment, understanding, or agreement to find that a "plan (or series of related transactions)" exists is the notion of mutuality or mutual expectations among the parties to the understanding.
For example, the regulations should include language such as the following: "mere internal discussions or analyses of potential acquisition or business combinations or mere inquiries or expressions of interest in a potential combination (even if expressed to the would-be distributing or distributed corporation) do not, in the absence of other concrete evidence and actions between the parties, establish that a plan exists for purposes of section 355(e).
Section 355(e): corporate spinoffs
You can disbelieve in Santa Claus, and yet generosity and love and mystery and poetry and music and beauty will still exist, and they will make this world for you a very undreary place.
He exists as certainly as love and generosity and devotion exist, and you know that the, abound and give to your life its highest beauty and joy.
Church has tied romance and poetry and generosity together with the belief that Santa Claus exists.
Yes, Virginia, there probably is no Santa Claus
For example, if no ready market exists, a strategy to sell an asset is not feasible.
FASB 109: auditing considerations of deferred tax assets
For this power of substitution to exist in the corporate sense, the member must be able, without the consent of other members, to confer on the member's substitute all of the attributes of the member's interest in the organization.
Limited liability exists if under local law there is no member personally liable for the debts of, or claims against, the organization.
Proposed regulation classifies LLC members for self-employment tax purposes
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