Live to the hilt

I am looking for the meaning of the phrase: "Living life to the hilt". Do you know where this came from??
Thanks you very much.
David Dye

Doing anything "to the hilt" means doing it to the uttermost, with nothing held back, by analogy with plunging a sword or knife into a substance as far as the blade will go. A hilt is "the handle of a weapon or tool, particularly of a sword or dagger" (American Heritage Dict.).