charmed life

A life characterized or seemingly protected by marked good fortune or luck, without (or rarely) encountering trouble, danger, or misfortune. Often preceded by the verbs "lead," "live," or "have." Celebrities seem to have a rather charmed life, with everything handed to them on a silver platter. Other than minor colds, I've never been ill in my life. I guess I've just led a charmed life.

An existence that seems protected by extreme good luck, as in Robert came out of that accident without a scratch; he must lead a charmed life. The adjective charmed once meant "magical," which is no doubt what Shakespeare had in mind when he used the term in Macbeth (5:8): "Let fall thy blade on vulnerable crests, I bear a charmed life, which must not yield To one of woman born." Later it was extended to anyone who narrowly escaped from danger or was similarly lucky. [Late 1500s]

To be extremely lucky, to emerge from danger unscathed. The term probably was invented by Shakespeare, for whom charmed had the significance of “magical.” Thus Macbeth proclaims he is magically protected against death (“I bear a charmed life, which must not yield to one of woman born,” 5.7) but is nevertheless slain by Macduff, who “was from his mother’s womb untimely ripped.” The expression was transferred to less combative affairs and said of anyone who escaped unfortunate consequences. It was a cliché by the mid-nineteenth century.