a life of its own

English

Noun

a life of its own (plural lives of their own)

1. (idiomatic) An independent existence with some characteristics of life.
   • 1996, George Steiner, Tolstoy or Dostoevsky: An Essay in the Old Criticism, page 181

     Sartre rejects the notion that an imagined character possesses, in any rational sense, "a life of its own".

   • 2002, John Seely Brown, Paul Duguid, The Social Life of Information, page 18

     […], information takes on not only a speed of its own, but a life of its own.

   • 2003, Kristin Hunter Lattany, The Lakestown Rebellion, page 185

     A massive hangover with a life of its own kept Fess pinned to his bed most of Sunday.