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deathn. Origin: A word inherited from Germanic. Etymology: Cognate with Old Frisian dāth , dād , dāt (West Frisian dea ), Old Dutch dōth (Middle Dutch doot , doet , dood , Dutch dood ), Old Saxon dōth (Middle Low German dōt , dōd- ), Old High German tōd (Middle High German tōt , tōd- , German Tod ), Old Icelandic dauðr (also dauði ), Old Swedish döþer , döþe (Swedish död ), Old Danish døth (Danish død ), Gothic dauþus < a suffixed form (compare -th suffix1) of the Germanic base of die v.1 Compare dead adj.Inflection in Old English. In Old English usually a strong masculine a -stem; occasional forms may perhaps reflect original u -stem inflection as in Germanic (e.g. apparent cases of genitive singular deaða in verse (compare quot. OE for death's door n. at Compounds 3c), or dative singular deoða in late Northumbrian), but this is uncertain and disputed. Form history. The modern standard pronunciation /dɛθ/ reflects shortening of the stem vowel in early modern English, while the spelling ea reflects the former long vowel (Middle English long open ē < Old English ēa ). The origin of the β. forms is uncertain and disputed, and it is likely that a number of factors are involved. Some of the apparent early β. forms probably represent scribal errors of d for ð (which differs only by a cross-stroke) or come from scribal languages which show functional overlap between these letters. Additionally, already in Old English in compounds and derivatives there are possible signs of confusion between formations in death n. and corresponding formations in dead adj.; compare e.g. deathly adj. and deadly adj. In later use in certain compounds, the spelling dead- seems partly to reflect reanalysis of the β. forms as showing dead n. or dead adj. (compare e.g. forms at death bell n., death wound n., and discussion at those entries). However, it is likely that the β. forms are at least partly phonological in origin; in several compounds they may show assimilation to, or dissimilation from, an initial dental in the second element (compare e.g. forms at death day n. and death throe n. respectively), and in northern English and Scots they may partly reflect the widespread interchange of the sounds /ð/ and /d/ in the vicinity of a liquid or a nasal (compare e.g. α. forms at death light n., and see discussion of γ. forms at earth n.1), although this would not explain the existence of these variants in other phonetic environments, unless by analogy. The influence of early Scandinavian forms has also been suggested. I. Simple uses. 1. The act or fact of dying; the end of life; the permanent cessation of the vital functions of a person, animal, plant, or other organism. Also: an instance of this; (with specification) a manner of dying. accidental, natural, quick, sudden death etc., cot, martyr, road, stage death, etc.: see the first element. a. Of an individual. α. eOE tr. Bede (Tanner) iii. xi. 190 Ða he þa geseah þæt he [sc. sum leornungmon] wæs neah deaðe [L. morti], þa ongon he forhtian. OE 33 He mid his costunge ure costunge oforswiþde, & mid his deaþe urne deaþ. c1175 (Burchfield transcript) Ded. l. 271 Mann kinn þurrh hiss dæþ Wass lesedd ut off helle. c1275 Kentish Serm. in J. Hall (1920) I. 222 (MED) Non ne wot þane dai of his diaþe. a1382 (Douce 370) (1850) 1 Chron. xxii. 5 Beforn his death he made redy alle the dispensis. c1405 (c1375) G. Chaucer (Hengwrt) (2003) l. 481 Tak kepe of the deeth of Oloferne. c1449 R. Pecock (1860) 376 Tho wommen..whiche after hir husbondis deethis wolden..lyue chaast. 1548 f. xxxiiijv I was credibly enformed of the death of the.ii.younge innocentes, his awne natural nephewes. 1571 G. Buchanan sig. A.4 To reuenge his Fatheris deith. a1593 C. Marlowe (1594) sig. A3v [We] were sworne to your father at his death, That he should nere returne into the realme. 1600 W. Shakespeare v. i. 283 The death of a deare friend. View more context for this quotation 1667 J. Milton ix. 832 With him all deaths I could endure, without him live no life. View more context for this quotation a1711 T. Ken Hymnotheo v, in (1721) III. 166 They..at the Point of Death shall co-expire. 1743 Jan. 31/2 Little trifling Accidents, such as..the Death of a Lap-dog. 1774 (Royal Soc.) 64 439 Their deaths were registered, but not their births. 1828 W. Scott Fair Maid of Perth i, in 2nd Ser. II. 24 Their feud would be stanched by the death of one, or probably both, of the villains. 1855 Apr. 204 Under the epiglottis is a polypus which was the cause of the horse's death. 1887 J. A. Hamilton in IX. 370/2 He bore the scar to his death. 1922 I. H. Harper V. App. 747 A nation mourned the death of Anna Howard Shaw. 1960 C. Day Lewis i. 16 A photograph that after my mother's untimely death used to hang in the dark corners or passages of the houses we occupied. 2000 S. Pattison in A. Hastings et al. 286/2 The sacrament of anointing is now seen..not merely as the viaticum for those close to death. 1587 Sir P. Sidney & A. Golding tr. P. de Mornay x. 163 The forme of the Plant which fadeth by the death of the Plant it selfe. 1658 A. Burgess ii. i. 78 The Husbandman, who by planting his Science into, another stock, doth thereby make it partake of the life or death of the Tree. 1694 R. Blome tr. A. Le Grand vii. xvi. 252 Plants, as Animals, perish two several ways, viz. by a Natural or Violent Death. 1726 R. Bradley tr. G. A. Agricola (new ed.) iv. 48 As..I shall treat in the following Chapter of the Diseases and Death of Trees. 1771 Sept. 412/1 Physical observations concerning the generation, nutrition, organization, life, health, sickness, and death of plants. 1803 7 June 181/1 The failure in the crops, and..the premature death of your fruit trees. 1851 N. Hawthorne vi. 96 Vagrant and lawless plants, more useful after their death than ever while flaunting in the sun. 1902 W. E. Hinds 10 This insect's connection with the deterioration and death of the vines was not known until 1868. 1940 26 July 91/1 The death of phage-infected bacteria. 2001 N.Willmer in L. Shaw-Miller 234/2 The death of the elms behind the wall from Dutch Elm Disease. 2011 C. A. Kauffman et al. 136/2 This configuration gives rise to a pore-like structure, leakage of vital cytoplasmic components.., and death of the organism. the world > life > death > [noun] α. OE 51 God sceal wið yfele, geogoð sceal wið yldo, lif sceal wið deaþe. a1225 (?c1175) Poema Morale (Lamb.) 193 in R. Morris (1868) 1st Ser. 171 (MED) Deþ com in þis middenerde þurh þes doules honde. 1340 (1866) 87 Hy byeþ delyured of alle wo, of drede, of deaþe, and of zenne. a1398 J. Trevisa tr. Bartholomaeus Anglicus (BL Add. 27944) (1975) I. vi. ii. 293 Deth hatte mors for it is bittir. a1400 (a1325) (Trin. Cambr.) l. 835 Fro þat tyme furst coom deþ to man. ?1518 A. Barclay tr. D. Mancinus sig. Eiiv What shulde he drede of dethe, it is ineuytable. a1631 S. Harsnett Serm. Ezek. in R. Steward (1656) iv. 128 There are no two things so opposite as Life and Death. 1667 J. Milton i. 3 The Fruit Of that Forbidden Tree, whose mortal tast Brought Death into the World. View more context for this quotation 1697 J. Dryden tr. Virgil Georgics iii, in tr. Virgil 99 Death's inexorable Doom. View more context for this quotation 1769 W. Cowper 21 Jan. (1979) I. 205 Death is either the most formidable or the most comfortable thing we have in Prospect. 1792 T. Dermody 71 While Life remains, I want a friend; When Death comes on, why,—there's an End. 1866 J. R. Seeley iv. 37 The Greek did not even in the earliest times believe death to be annihilation. 1883 Aug. 410/1 All this talk about death seems to me to be cursed bad taste. 1938 9 Dec. 6/3 May I remind you that death is frequent among everybody and is especially common in older people. 1966 K. Burke (1968) iii. iii. 455 Death itself, as the privation of Life, is the Great Negative. 2010 W. Herbert iii. v They had a group of volunteers think about death—the usual laboratory prime for existential fear. the world > life > death > [noun] > personified or as an agent OE (1992) iv. 99 La, ðu deað, hwi let þu minne lichoman swa lange lybban on þam unrihte? c1200 (?OE) (1890) l. 14 Dureleas is þet hus..and dæð hefð þa cæȝe. a1225 (?c1175) Poema Morale (Lamb.) l. 127 in R. Morris (1868) 1st Ser. 167 (MED) Wenne deð [a1225 Trin. Cambr. deað, ?c1250 Egerton ded] is attere dure, wel late he biddeþ are. c1330 (?a1300) (Auch.) (1973) l. 4423 Ascaped from deþes hond. a1400 (a1325) (Vesp.) l. 18115 (MED) To ded i said, ‘quar es þi stang?’ c1450 MS Douce 52 in (1906) 52 Alle to late, alle to late, When deth is come to ȝate. 1504 in S. Tymms (1850) 105 A blak clothe steynyd wt an ymage of deth. c1550 (1830) i. 1228 Daith sall me devoure. 1590 C. Marlowe sig. E3 Death..is seated on my horsmens speares: And on their points his fleshlesse bodie feedes. 1600 W. Shakespeare ii. vii. 63 O hell! what haue wee heare, a carrion death, within whose emptie eye there is a written scroule. View more context for this quotation 1667 J. Milton xi. 491 Over them triumphant Death his Dart Shook, but delaid to strike. View more context for this quotation 1708 E. Arwaker ii. xvi. 118 Resolv'd on this, she gently Death bespoke; Take heed you do not mis-direct your Stroke. 1790 T. Pennant 330 Death..shaking his remembering hour-glass. 1839 H. W. Longfellow i There is a Reaper, whose name is Death. 1874 J. Fowler in 19 Feb. 143 A figure of Death, represented as a skeleton with mattock and spade. 1913 J. G. Frazer I. iii. 79 One day Death came and asked for one of their daughters. 1953 M. M. Kaye (title) Death walked in Kashmir. 1999 T. Parker & M. Stone Death in 112 (stage direct.) Slowly, Death catches up to the boys, he stretches out his bony hand. society > authority > punishment > capital punishment > [noun] eOE (Corpus Cambr. 173) v. 90 Gif hwa sie deaðes scyldig & he cirican geierne, hæbbe his feorh & bete, swa him ryht wisige. OE (Claud.) xxi. 22 Ðonne man bið deaðes scyldig & hine man on gealgan ahehð, byrge hine man ðæs ylcan dæges, ði læs ðe ðæt land sy besmiten ðurh hine. 1484 W. Caxton tr. G. de la Tour-Landry (1971) lxvii. 99 And thenne al her fayttes and dedes were put to Iugement before al the barons of the londe, and sentence of dethe was cast on her. 1570 J. Foxe (rev. ed.) I. xi. 2131/1 True iustice would haue heard both the parties aduisedly, and..not to rash out the Sentence of death so hastely as they did. 1662 51 After that, out comes the Judgement or Sentence of Death against him. 1697 N. Luttrell Diary in (1857) IV. 296 Great sollicitation has been used for the two latter to change their sentence from death to transportation. 1724 J. Swift 21 The Sentence of Death, with all the Circumstances of Hanging, Beheading, Quartering, Embowelling and the like. 1796 G. L. Way tr. P. J.-B. Legrand d'Aussy I. 172 Your court its judgement did decree, Quittance or death. 1800 Mar. 270/1 Baron Hotham was about to put on his black cap, and to pass sentence of death on the prisoner. 1878 12 Dec. The President has..commuted the sentences of two murderers and one raper from death to imprisonment for life. 1957 J. Bishop (1959) 48 His Emperor had given him the ius gladii the power to pronounce the sentence of death. 1984 R. N. Boyd 168 ‘Dust him.’... Weasel had been found guilty of being a snitch; his sentence was death. 2013 (Nexis) 26 Jan. 30 [He] and others appealed their life sentences and got death. OE Ælfric Homily: De Duodecim Abusivis (Corpus Cambr. 178) in R. Morris (1868) 1st Ser. 299 Se ealda mæg witan gewiss him þone deað. lOE King Ælfred tr. Boethius (Bodl.) (2009) I. viii. 257 Gif hit [sc. mod] on ænegum ænige hwile fæstlice wunað, se deað hit huru afirreð þæt hit beon ne mæg þær hit ær wæs. c1350 (Harl. 874) (1961) 94 (MED) Þai ne han nouȝth loued her lijf vnto þe deþ. a1393 J. Gower (Fairf.) i. l. 1054 (MED) Be this cause he was respited, So that the deth him was acquited. a1425 (a1400) (Galba & Harl.) (1863) l. 355 Of þe dede and whi it es to drede. c1440 ( J. Gaytryge Lay Folks' Catech. (Thornton) in G. G. Perry (1914) 3 When þe dede hase sundyrde oure bodyes and oure saules. 1513 G. Douglas tr. Virgil i. i. 54 Quhilk hed the deid eschapit. 1597 W. Shakespeare i. ii. 166 I laie it [sc. his breast] naked to the deadly stroke, And humbly beg the death . View more context for this quotation a1616 W. Shakespeare (1623) iv. i. 170 Where they feared the death, they haue borne life away. View more context for this quotation 1721 J. Dart 37 Daring the Death, fell each Heroick Brave. 1870 M. J. Preston 35 Thou would'st dare the death—Yea, thou hast dared it, facing of the foe. 1972 Apr. 12/1 Not a whisper, not a word, Cowards only fear the death. 1996 A. Falk xxii. 313 The new religion..expressed their deepest feelings, such as the fear of the death and the longing for rebirth, in the symbolic language of the unconscious. the world > life > death > [noun] > state or condition of OE (1932) 583 He on grundwæge gumena cynnes manige missenlice men of deaðe worde awehte. OE Ælfric (Royal) (1997) xxii. 357 Wite ge soðlice þæt crist aras of deaðe. a1250 Lofsong Louerde in R. Morris (1868) 1st Ser. Minor Creed 217 (MED) Ðe þridde dei he a-ros from deaðe to liue. a1325 (c1250) (1968) l. 265 Quan al man-kinde..Sal ben fro dede to liue brogt. 1340 (1866) 7 Oure lhord aros uram dyaþe to lyue. c1400 (?a1300) (Laud) (1952) l. 4647 Þat euere hateden hem so fendes, Now hij ben in deþ frendes. a1475 (Garrett) (1929) 35 [Lazarus] was arered fro deth to lyfe. a1500 (?c1400) (Cambr.) (1937) l. 104 Tyll thou be broght to the dedd. 1549 (STC 16267) Buriall f. xxiiii* In the middest of lyfe we be in death. 1562 Certayn Serm. preached in Lincs. in H. Latimer ii. f. 108 Christ..rose again from the death. 1619 M. Drayton Idea lxi, in 273 Now if thou would'st, when all haue giuen him ouer, From Death to Life, thou might'st him yet recouer. 1668 J. Denham 116 Sleep that is thy best repast, Yet of death it bears a taste. 1712 A. Philips iii. iv. 28 Hector first taught me Love; which my fond heart Shall ever cherish, till we meet in Death. 1747 Nov. 539/2 As late I slept, possess'd of breath So now I only sleep, in death. 1785 W. Cowper vi. 182 From dearth to plenty, and from death to life, Is Nature's progress. 1819 E. C. Brown II. iii. 30 The paleness of death overspread his countenance. 1864 M. Frost 55 Those eyes that beam'd with love Are closed in death—the Spirit 's gone above. 1910 19 Feb. 378/1 Cases of apparent death followed by a revival from death have been frequent. 1944 G. Hamlyn-Harris 63 The stretchers on which sufferers are lying between life and death. 1994 (Republic of Kenya) 7 Dec. 1034/1 According to Islamic teachings, Jesus did not die and therefore, he never rose from the death. 2011 S. Dunlap xxvi. 248 His eyes were closed, but he didn't have the pallor of death. 3. eOE tr. Bede (Tanner) iii. xi. 190 Ne twygeo ic þonne mec noht æfter þæs lichoman deaðe hræðe gelæd beon to þam ecan deaðe minre sawle [L. ad perpetuam animae mortem]. OE Ælfric (Royal) (1997) xxxiii. 461 Þære sawle deað is þreora cynna: an is yfel geþafung, oþer is yfel weorc, þridda is yfel gewuna. c1175 (Burchfield transcript) l. 19052 Þiss lif niss nohht rihht nemmnedd lif. Acc dæþ itt maȝȝ ben nemmnedd. a1225 (?OE) MS Lamb. in R. Morris (1868) 1st Ser. 39 Þenne bureȝest þu here saule..from þan ufele deaðe þet is from helle pine. c1400 (Harl. 171) (1971) 16 He schal..sle hem bi euerlastynge deeþ. ?a1425 (Egerton) (1889) 1 To by and delyuer vs fra deed withouten end. c1475 in J. P. Genet (1977) 196 God..put theyme from paradise terrestre and theyme condempnyd by justise to spirituell deeth and bodily. 1484 W. Caxton tr. G. de la Tour-Landry (1971) xliiii. 66 The perille of the deth of helle. 1534 Rom. viii. 6 To be carnally mynded, is deeth [Gk. θάνατος]. 1569 J. Sanford tr. H. C. Agrippa xcix. f. 174 Paule witnesseth that he sawe such thinges as are not lawfull for a man to speake: and this sighte or beholdinge of many is called..a spirituall death. 1575 T. Vautrollier tr. M. Luther (ii. 18) f. 68v Is not this an horrible blasphemy... by doing good works thou shalt be made worthy of eternall life? but by beleuing in Christ thou shalt be made culpable and giltie of eternall death? a1631 J. Donne (1959) IV. 292 In those Duels..He that comes alive out of the field comes a dead man, because he comes a deadly sinner, and he that remaines dead in the field, is gone into an everlasting death. 1645 S. Rutherford 207 That death, that soul-hell in the want of Christ. 1673 H. Hickman 380 That God ordained certain to eternal life, certain to eternal death, without any regard had to their righteousness or sin. 1705 B. Kennett tr. J. La Placette ii. iii. 179 These Persons are justly look'd on as Publick Empoisoners, who by the Venome of their pernicious Imaginations cause Spiritual Death. 1785 W. Cowper v. 862 Fables false as hell..lure down to death The uninformed and heedless souls of men. 1844 tr. M. T. Asmar II. 63 This spot, where our Saviour shed his blood to save all mankind from everlasting death. 1885 S. Cox I. xx The want of this [eternal] life is eternal death. 1936 J. Macmurray iv. 44 What religion has called spiritual death, or eternal death, is..the pervasion of the mind by the death principle in life itself. 1978 I. Kesarcodi-Watson & I. Kesarcodi-Watson tr. V. Lossky iv. 108 It is the choice..to allow all that makes our condition, that is to say our fallenness, penetrate His self at depth: and this depth is anguish, death, descent into Hell. 2000 D. A. S. Fergusson in A. Hastings et al. 564/1 A fixed and immutable number of human beings and angels are predestinated to everlasting life and others foreordained to everlasting death. 1539 R. Taverner tr. Publilius Syrus Mimi sig. B.v, in tr. Erasmus Banyshement is in effecte a ciuile death [L. exul..est ut mortuus insepultus]. a1631 J. Donne (1633) sig. E1 The Allegoricall death of entring into Religion. 1772 J. W. Fletcher iii. 126 Does he not wound the reputation of those whom he cannot devour, and inflict at least academic death upon [them]. 1827 6 151 A verdict in this case against him, is his professional death. 1899 Aug. 133 That social death which the world inflicts as a punishment upon women who are detected in any kind of sexual irregularity. 1960 O. Chadwick iii. 211 Death to the world is life to God. 1988 I. Asimov v. 19 A man who could, at will, order one's imprisonment or execution—or, at the very least, the economic and social death of loss of position and status. 2011 J. Blenkinsopp iv. 97 The penalty for shedding the blood of a member of one's own tribe was the social death of banishment. 4. the world > life > death > cause of death > [noun] OE Wærferð tr. Gregory (Corpus Cambr.) (1900) iii. xi. 194 Þa wæs eac se biscop gelæded in þone middel.., & þær wæs begyten se mæsta & se ryþesta bera to his deaðe [L. ad eius mortem]. c1330 (?c1300) (Auch.) l. 365 Þou art mi liif, mi ded y-wis..Y dye for þe loue of þe. a1382 (Douce 370) (1850) 4 Kings iv. 40 Thei crieden oute, seyinge, Deth in the pott! deth in the pott! 1576 G. Pettie 22 Shee saw hee had drunke vp his death. 1601 P. Holland tr. Pliny II. xxxiii. i. 458 Their rings serve for no other use or purpose but to carrie their owne death about them. 1693 R. Ames xii. 13 Sobriety would be the Death, 'Tis Claret: that preserves his Breath. 1697 J. Dryden tr. Virgil Æneis ix, in tr. Virgil 540 Swiftly flies The feather'd Death, and hisses thro' the Skies. 1713 A. Pope 6 The clam'rous Plovers feel the Leaden Death. 1767 J. Hoole tr. P. Metastasio Artaxerxes iii. xiv, in tr. P. Metastasio I. 115 Lay by thy sword or here I drink my death. 1789 G. White ii. v. 325 The twigs and leaves of yew..are certain death to horses and cows. 1832 7 i. 92 The dull, slow, big phrases of official intercourse are death to him. 1870 W. H. Dixon 206 The whisky-shops..are loud and busy, pouring out nips and nippets of their liquid death. 1881 July 284 Though it might be death to germs, it did not disinfect. 1903 W. L. Sheldon xiv. 115 What is sport to the cat is death to the mouse. 1940 29 July 77/1 All this lovely, lovely part of budding France, bristled with hidden death. 1976 P. Haring 9 Whatever potion pleases me I will not drink it thirstily Lest I so drinking lose my breath, And never know that I drink death. 2009 C. Trup ii. 105 At some point in every trial he would declare ‘drugs are death’. 1530 Lev. Prol. It is death to eate the bloude or fatte of any sacrifice. 1613 S. Purchas 882 It was death for any to be found false and incontinent. 1650 H. Bell 3 An Edict..That it should bee Death for anie person to have..a Copie thereof. 1673 J. Milton Sonnets xvi, in (new ed.) 59 And that one Talent which is death to hide, Lodg'd with me useless. 1723 A. de la Mottraye II. iv. 147 It being Death for a Person of an inferiour Fortune to steal an Heiress. 1755 Jan. 22/2 It was made death for a poor soldier, let him be never so ill used by his captain, to leave the company. 1796 P. Colquhoun (ed. 2) xi. 270 By the Jewish law it was death for children to curse or strike their parents. 1847 Ld. Tennyson Prol. 8 I would make it death For any male thing but to peep at us. 1923 J. B. Bury II. xviii. 196 A river descends with such a rapid current that it would be death to attempt to cross it. 1924 Mar. 23 Khammurabi made it death to kidnap a slave. 1999 J. G. Keyes (2000) ii. xvi. 271 I made that promise before it was death for me to be seen here. the world > existence and causation > existence > non-existence > [noun] > ceasing to exist OE Homily (Junius 121) in (1972) 13 1008 Soþlice se Hælend wæs þæs deaþes deað, forþam mid his deaðe he oforswaþ þone ecan deað. a1398 J. Trevisa tr. Bartholomaeus Anglicus (BL Add. 27944) (1975) I. vi. xxviii. 339 Honest traueile is..deþ of yueles and of sikenes. c1405 (c1375) G. Chaucer (Hengwrt) (2003) l. 578 Who shal me yeue teeris to compleyne The deeth of gentilesse and of franchise. 1483 ( tr. G. Deguileville (Caxton) iii. x. f. lviv And oure deth is withouten deth, for it hath none ende. 1595 T. Bedingfield tr. N. Machiavelli viii. 210 That their common weale might auoyd bondage, which is the death of all free Cities. 1637 R. Basset 29 By reason the Moon is retrograde, & ill deposed at that time, is the cause of its death. 1718 I. Watts iii. xxiii Our faith beholds the dying Lord, And dooms our sins to death. 1787 J. Bentham Let. 9–20 Feb. in (1971) III. 522 Back-breaking, which is the death of so many vessels. 1821 P. B. Shelley 29 From the lamp's death to the morning ray. 1846 Mar. 146/2 It is wilfully to bind himself in fetters,—to subject the ideal to the real in a way which is death to art. 1884 W. C. Smith 48 Suspicion murders love, and from its death Come anguish and remorse. 1923 Aug. 68/3 (heading) Thorny puncture vine is death to tires. 1981 P. Carey v. 216 The joke did not go down well. She drank a solitary toast to the death of humour. 2011 L. Cassuto Introd. 1 Rumors of the death of the novel appear greatly exaggerated. the world > health and disease > ill health > a disease > plague or pestilence > [noun] OE Wulfstan Homily: Be Mistlican Gelimpan (Tiber. A.iii) in A. S. Napier (1883) 172 Gif hit gewyrþe, þæt on þeodscipe becume healic ongelimp.., manncwealm oððe orfcwealm.., oþþe færlic coþa oþþe færlic deaþ, þonne sece man a þa bote to gode sylfum. a1387 J. Trevisa tr. R. Higden (St. John's Cambr.) (1869) II. 161 Þis manere was moche i-vsed to for firste deth [c1410 BL Add. þe firste moreyn]. a1450 T. Walsingham (1863) I. 410 Gode and Seynt Mango, Seynt Romayne and Seynt Andreu scheld us this day fro..the foule deth that Ynglessh men dyene upon. a1500 ( (1895) II. 62 Scoti..sumpserunt in juramentum..sub hac forma, quando jurare volebant: ‘Per foedam mortem Anglorum,’ Anglice, ‘be the foul deth of Englond’. 1556 in J. G. Nichols (1852) 29 Thys yere was a gret deth at the Menerys. 1577 R. Holinshed II. 1591/2 In this yeare a great death of the Pestilence reigned in London. 1749 T. Short II. 12 A great Death of Cattle began this Year. 1866 J. E. T. Rogers I. xv. 297 Here it was for thirty years the practice to head the list of the expenses of the manor with the account of the lives which were lost and the tenancies which were vacated by the great death of 1348. 1992 R. Wright (1993) 351 In some isolated areas, such as Canada's north and parts of the Amazon, the great death did not strike until much later. 2001 S. Martin vii. 82 The second outbreak [in 1361] became known as the Grey Death or the Children's Plague. the world > life > death > killing > slaughter > [noun] OE Ælfric (Cambr. Gg.3.28) iii. 24 Oðre lytle fugelas..ofsleað sum ðing.., ne deð seo culfre na swa, ne leofað heo be nanum deaðe. c1425 J. Lydgate (Augustus A.iv) ii. l. 8248 (MED) Vntacord was noon oþer mene, But slauȝtre and deth hem to go betwene. 1560 J. Daus tr. J. Sleidane iv. f. xliiiv They vse this Ceremony, lest they beynge holy men, shoulde seme to be the Aucthors of death or bloudshed. a1605 R. Bannatyne (1836) 74 We never made us to tak revenge thairof be way of deid or bludshed. a1626 (1642) 4 Not to suffer a man of death to live. 1711 J. Addison No. 70. ¶4 The Poet..describes a bloody Battle and dreadful Scene of Death. 1777 R. Potter tr. Æschylus Seven Chiefs against Thebes in tr. Æschylus 180 Murd'rous is the rage that fires thee To deeds of death. 1822 P. B. Shelley 22 The dew is foul with death. 1883 A. J. Church & W. J. Brodribb tr. xxii. li. 118 Some were cut down by the foe as they rose covered with blood from the field of death. 1928 L. R. Jackson 215 Sneak aft and do your great acts, like private retchings and acts of death. 1954 C. Ekwensi iv. 129 Less than a hundred miles from the scene of death, desolation and the shattering of families, yet this place stubbornly refused to see the evil in the world. 2008 Nov. 47/1 The shows combine crime and soap opera, dirty laundry with science, and satisfy our macabre fascination with death and crime. the world > food and drink > hunting > signals > call or signal [verb (transitive)] > sound a call c1425 Edward, Duke of York (Vesp. B.xii) (1904) 101 (MED) Þe maister of þe game..shuld crie skilfully loude ‘Dedow’..and euery hunter blowe þe deeþ. 1575 G. Gascoigne lxii. 175 Let the huntesman alight from his horse, and blowe the death to call in all the houndes. 1686 R. Blome iii. vii. 86 He that first gets in, cries Hoo-up, to give Notice that he is down, and Blows a Death. 1714 A. Stringer 83 Let all the Gentlemen, Keepers and Huntsmen who use horns, stand round the Deer and blow the Death. 1736 ii. i. 214 He that first gets in cries Hoo-up..and blows a Death. 1826 in W. Hone (1827) II. 121 The keeper..blew ‘the death of the buck’, and..the horners..answered him. 1899 R. W. Chambers xxi. 227 I wiped the shining blade on the moss and set the horn to my parched lips and blew the ‘Death!’ 1967 42 272 She herself then blew the Death and all the huntsmen followed her example. 2003 R. Hayman iii. 31 When the hart lay dead the hunters blew the death. the world > health and disease > ill health > a disease > diseases of tissue > [noun] > alteration of tissue > necrosis ?c1425 tr. Guy de Chauliac (Paris) (1971) 97 Cancrene is cleped mortificacioun (i. deþe) of þe lyme of þe pacient. 1673 J. Flavell xxxix. 550 So that as we are said to die in Adam, (who also was a common person) as the branches die in the death of the root; so we are said to be raised from death in Christ, who is the head, root, and representative of all his Elect seed. 1800 3 543 So great a torpor, as to produce ‘the death or mortification of the parts’. 1869 T. H. Huxley (ed. 3) i. 23 When death takes place, the body, as a whole, dies first, the death of the tissues not occurring until after a considerable interval. 1916 C. A. Mercier vii. 161 Is the failure in the flow of the sap the cause of the death of the leaves in autumn? 1964 64 No. 6. 79/2 Hyperbaric oxygen therapy increases the oxygen content of the blood which flows to the injured area, and may be the difference between survival or death of the extremity. 2011 (Nexis) 11 June 9 Overwatering can lead to root death so let compost dry slightly between waterings. the mind > language > malediction > oaths > [interjection] > oaths other than religious or obscene > imprecations 1593 N. Breton in R. S. 67 And crie, O Loue, O death, O vaine desire. a1616 W. Shakespeare (1622) iii. iii. 401 Death and damnation—oh. 1671 J. Dryden iv. 60 Death, you make me mad, Sir! 1766 O. Goldsmith I. xi. 101 Death! to be seen by ladies..in such vulgar attitudes! 1843 H. W. Longfellow ii. iii. 79 Death and damnation! I'll cut his lying tongue out of his mouth, And throw it to my dog! 1860 18 Aug. 224/2 We may learn how to look after the cooking, and—oh, death! oh, fury! oh, vengeance!—how to darn stockings. 1922 S. Gordon xv. 147 His child, his very own child! And not to be able to press his lips to her sweet young face. Oh, death, oh, misery! 2002 V. Henley xviii. 205 Oh, death and damnation, I've sunk to being maudlin! the world > physical sensation > physical sensibility > physical insensibility > unconsciousness > [noun] the world > physical sensation > physical sensibility > physical insensibility > unconsciousness > [noun] > fainting or swooning > a faint or swoon 1594 J. Ogle sig. Gv She weps and wails and often to death swound Falling with hir face plat vpon the ground, She is with sorrow so woe-begone As one that ment to die anone.] 1596 J. Smythe in H. Ellis (1843) 97 It brought sodeyne death itself upon me for three quarters of an houre. 1661 P. Heylyn i. 168 That Office, which was to Her no more unwelcome, then if it had been nothing, but the preparation to the Death of Sleep, and not unto the Sleep of Death. 1713 J. Smith 73 A short Death suspends my Thought: Till thus repriev'd awhile from Sense of Pain, 'Tis more than Life to view your Charms again. 1749 J. Cleland II. 63 She clos'd her eyes in the sweet death, in the instant of which she was embalm'd by an injection. 1754 T. Denton xxii. 16 When lock'd in short Suspence by Sleep's soft pow'r In temporary Death the Senses lie. 1899 A. C. Swinburne iii. 60 I know not Aught lovesome save the sweet brief death of sleep. 1969 4 July 8/3 As for sex: ‘Simultaneous death and transfiguration, completely out of control. The little death in what Unamuno calls “the genetic spasm” makes all things new again.’ 1999 M. Blum vi. 112 Taking time, his hands move down... A sharp stroke, repeated without gentleness. The thrill of small death. 2007 R. V. Ellis 33 Now he knows a slight death, A lucid moment: being so rooted He feels her draw The juice from under him. †II. The genitive singular used adjectivally. Cf. life n. IV.c1275 (?c1250) (Calig.) (1935) 1632 Ah þu neure mon to gode Lives ne deaþes stal ne stode. c1330 (?c1300) (Auch.) l. 5459 (MED) Niȝt no day swiken y nille, Liues or deþes þat ich him se. 1405 Will in R. W. Chambers & M. Daunt (1931) 212 (MED) And for all these paresshins, lyues and dedes, and for all Cristen soules pater noster par charyte. c1438 ii. 249 Alle þe teerys þay may..profityn myn euyn-cristen sowlys, lyuys er dedys, visite me wyth her in erth. Phrases P1. to death (also unto death (now archaic)). a. As complement expressing a physical consequence: so that the person or animal in question dies. the world > life > death > killing > killing by specific method > kill [verb (transitive)] > by blow(s) OE Ælfric (Cambr. Gg.3.28) xiii. 135 Þa sende he betwux him fyrene næddran þa totæron ðæs folces fela manna and to deaðe geættrodon. c1225 (?c1200) (Royal) 464 He sloh him wið a stan to deaðe. c1275 (?a1200) Laȝamon (Calig.) (1978) l. 12851 And..a-quellen hine to deðen. c1384 (Douce 369(2)) (1850) Micah vii. 2 A man hunteth his brother to deth. ?c1430 (c1400) J. Wyclif (1880) 138 Bi strong pursuynge to deþ of alle trewe men. c1475 in R. H. Robbins (1959) 223 (MED) He toke this rightwys kyng..And hym in prison put perpetuelly, Pyned to deth, alas, ful pyteuxly. c1540 (?a1400) (2002) f. 146 The Troiens..Dong hom to dethe. 1609 W. Shakespeare xcix. sig. Gv A vengfull canker eate him vp to death . View more context for this quotation 1660 H. More iii. xiii. 85 The more Zealous of the people lye in the way to be squeezed to death by the wheels. a1715 Bp. G. Burnet (1734) II. 353 Some houses fell and crushed their Masters to death. 1735 tr. C. Rollin V. 202 He ordered them all to be shot to death with arrows. a1774 R. Fergusson (1785) 175 My travellers are fley'd to deid Wi' creels wanchancy, heap'd wi' bread, Frae whilk hing down uncanny nicksticks. 1807 J. Milner i. §2. 49 He was..beat to death with cudgels. 1890 H. Morley VI. iv. 98 They should not be proud, greedy, and intolerant, doers to death of those who say that they can sin. 1898 28 Oct. 4/2 A plague officer,..while on plague duty, has been stoned to death at Hindupur. 1908 R. Johnson II. 265 Every one of the evil hounders to death of the two friends derived great advantages from their villainy. 1959 15 Aug. a3/1 Two hoodlums were gunned to death on Chicago's West Side today. 1997 J. Owen 8 It takes a long time to choke to death. 2007 S. Dunne (2009) i. 14 There's been a murder, sir. Some old dear, Strangled and beaten to death. society > law > administration of justice > court proceedings or procedure > judging > sentencing > sentence [verb (transitive)] > sentence to death OE Ælfric (Royal) (1997) i. 188 Ða nam þæt iudeisce folc micelne andan ongean his lare, & smeadon hu hi mihton hine to deaðe gedon. OE (Corpus Cambr.) xx. 18 Hig genyþeriað hyne to deaþe [L. condemnabunt eum morte]. c1225 (?c1200) (Bodl.) (1934) 36 Beatest us & bindest, & to deað fordemest. a1325 (c1280) (Pepys 2344) (1927) l. 2041 (MED) Hi dampnede him to deþe. ?a1400 (a1338) R. Mannyng (Petyt) ii. 127 Þe date..Steuen to dede was dight. a1500 (Rawl.) (1896) 35 Weryn the Citteseynnes to deth demyd. 1560 J. Knox et al. Buke Discipline in J. Knox (1848) II. 231 For suche..the Civill swearde aught to punische to death. 1587 Sir P. Sidney & A. Golding tr. P. de Mornay xxxii. 592 The putters of Iesus and of his disciples to death. 1640 D. Lupton 538 By the hand of envy and tyranny they were judged to death. 1682 J. Flavell Righteous Man's Refuge in (new ed.) 179 They were sentenced to death. ?1793 T. Priestley xiii. 320 Upon a full hearing, ripe deliberation, and exquisitely-judicial proceeding, we have sentenced this malefactor to death. 1829 P. Allwood II. xii. 551 That Inquisitorial power, which..had been ‘the accuser’, judge, tormentor, and putter-to-death, of so many of the innocent sons and daughters of Britain. 1909 226/2 I saw..all the noble polity of England arrayed to judge a boy to death for a five-minutes' prank. 2000 17 July 12/3 However, within a year he had been found guilty of murder, in what many felt was a fit-up, and sentenced to death. 1542 T. Elyot at Pericles Fynally Pericles beinge sycke vnto death, the noble men commen vnto him to comforte hym. 1593 W. Perkins ii. 87 Paul saith that he was sick to death, that he might not trust in him selfe, but in God who raiseth the dead. 1599 J. Rainolds 101 As if Achab being wounded to death with an arrow sticking in his side, should haue said, I am not hurt. 1727 E. Young 11 Tho' sick to death, abroad they safely roam. 1818 W. Scott Heart of Mid-Lothian x, in 2nd Ser. IV. 215 Having a beloved child sick to death of the crewels. 1873 Mar. 113/2 He was dragged from the burning pile, burnt and wounded to death. 1922 E. Goulding v. xi. 246 Get a doctor, one of you! He's hurt to death. 1998 C. Barker vi. xi. 377 He thought of the old man, sick to death but unwilling to die. the mind > emotion > intense emotion > [adverb] > in a deeply affecting manner OE tr. Vindicta Salvatoris (Cambr. Univ. Libr.) in J. E. Cross (1996) 265 Þa ða cyningas..þæt gehyrdon, hig wæron swyðe gedrefede and to deaðe afærede [L. usque ad mortem]. a1350 in G. L. Brook (1968) 56 My peyne pyneþ me to dede. a1400 (a1325) (Vesp.) l. 13070 (MED) Herodias him hated to ded. 1583 C. Hollyband 241 Clodius is inamoured to dead of a certaine yong woman. 1623 W. Shakespeare & J. Fletcher iv. ii. 1 Grif. How do's your Grace? Kath. O Griffith, sicke to death . View more context for this quotation 1670 G. Havers tr. G. Leti i. ii. 58 The Hereticks abhor me to death. 1672 J. Dryden ii. iii. iii. 112 I'm sad to death, that I must be your Foe. 1711 in (1885) App. v. 184 He is wurryed to death by those ungrateful nations. 1773 H. Chapone II. 80 A gentleman, who would resent to death, an imputation of falsehood. 1806 R. Bloomfield 45 Some almost laugh'd themselves to dead. 1830 J. Banim II. 273 Tell her I am sorry to death, and send my petition to see her. 1841 C. Dickens xxii. 59 My stars, Simmun!.. You frighten me to death! 1889 L. B. Walford xxix. 342 Keep it dark,..or we shall have the poor girl bothered to death. 1932 A. Christie iii. 40 I have been worried to death. Everybody's been telling me I'm nervy. 1969 S. Harris x. 191 They're what we call ‘closet cases’, hiding and scared to death of exposure. 1997 A. Lamott (1998) iii. 264 I'm sorry! I'm fucking sorry to death! Okay? the world > life > death > killing > kill [verb (transitive)] the mind > emotion > suffering > feeling of weariness or tedium > be or become wearied or bored with [verb (transitive)] > make wearisome or tedious > specific through repetition c1225 (?c1200) (Royal) (1981) 972 Ichulle..don þe to deaðe. c1330 (?c1300) (Auch.) l. 3581 So mani to ded þer he dede. a1400 (a1325) (Vesp.) l. 13961 Þe Iues..soght ihesu at do to ded. 1576 W. Lambarde 340 Iack Cade..did to death the Lord Say, and others. 1648 D. Lloyd 34 That one who at one breath Don Dego and Gonzago did to death. 1868 E. A. Freeman (1876) II. viii. 302 That brother had been done to death by English traitors. 1876 1 Jan. 48/1 That subject has been done to death by inferior pens. 1909 W. S. Sparrow ii. iii. 134 Diapered patterns for wall-papers and carpets..were ‘done to death’. 1932 C. Fuller 26 They were done to death by an impi of Zulu warriors. 1965 16 Apr. 605/1 It [sc. a tune] was mercilessly done to death by countless performers. 2008 D. Cassidy 19 Quit with the ‘I don't need anybody’ crap. You've done it to death. society > authority > punishment > capital punishment > execute [verb (transitive)] a1450 (c1410) H. Lovelich (1904) I. l. 1294 (MED) That schal neuere lyn Jn thy powere My modyr to deth to putten. 1504 (Electronic ed.) Parl. Jan. 1504 §21. m. 18 They were..overcome and dyvers put to deth. c1540 (?a1400) (2002) f. 180 The knightes..The pepull with pyne puttyn to dethe. 1631 W. Gouge iii. §60. 295 Ministers of Justice in putting capitall malefactors to death. a1715 Bp. G. Burnet (1734) II. 189 By the Portian Law, no Citizen could be put to Death for any Crime whatsoever. 1791 J. Boswell anno 1749 I. 106 She was carried off to be put to death behind the scenes. 1847 G. Grote IV. ii. xxxiv. 352 They were all put to death. 1910 15 434 The Makhelchel and Nishinam Indians of California formerly put their women to death for marrying or committing adultery with white men. 1963 M. L. King x. 79 He was put to death..as a martyr for Christ in Rome. 2008 C. Newkey-Burden in J. Burchill & C. Newkey-Burden 47 When a mass-murdering dictator was put to death for his crimes, suddenly the death sentence was barbaric. c1450 in T. Austin (1888) 116 Lete a fesaunt..blede to deth..& kutt a-wey the necke by the body. 1583 G. Babington ix. 482 Will not the dread of dolefull day..by litle and litle cut quite the throte of it, and make it bleede to death in vs? 1648 J. Raymond 95 [A statue of] Seneca bleeding to death, of Jet. 1791 J. Boswell anno 1778 II. 243 Johnson: It is a sad thing for a man..to bleed to death, because he has not fortitude enough to sear the wound. 1872 S. W. Baker (new ed.) viii. 118 The arteries being divided, the animal would quickly bleed to death. 1936 ‘R. Hyde’ 119 The men crept away into their dug-outs and bled to death. 2005 S. Rushdie 4 The ambassador was slaughtered on her doorstep like a halal chicken dinner, bleeding to death from a deep neck wound. c1475 tr. A. Chartier (Univ. Coll. Oxf.) (1974) 153 (MED) There they faught to deth, as they that naturall pitee had of thaire frendys and cuntrey. 1548 f. xliii We be not of so small a courage but that we wyll fight to death to obteyne right and iustice. 1594 T. Kyd tr. R. Garnier iv. sig. G1v He for Monarchie, Made fight to death with show of liberty. 1602 J. Marston Induct. sig. A4 By..the resplendent fulgor of this steele, I will defende the feminine to death. 1624 T. Gataker 3 What is here said of being faithfull to death, is in the next Epistle, called the keeping of his workes to the end. 1756 T. Amory I. 337 A louse and a flea..are creatures that hate each other as much as spiders do, and fight to death when they meet. 1789 W. Williams ii. v. 347 They would persist in the struggle to death to avoid suspicion of timidity. 1828 W. Scott Fair Maid of Perth ix, in 2nd Ser. II. 265 Laying schemes for massacring men on Palm Sunday, as if he were backing a Welsh main, where all must fight to death. 1874 T. W. Holme 27 The mother..Presses that hard and horny hand of toil, Honest to death. 1921 (Agassiz Assoc.) Feb. 134/2 Two of the full-grown female opossums fought to death, both dying from bites and gashes in the sides. 2001 J. E. Everson ii. iii. 68 Polynices formed his band of brothers united in a war to death. 1904 23 July 2/6 That matter had been flogged to death. (Voice: ‘Yes, let it drop!’). 1948 15 Nov. x5/3 He expects his projected picture..to be the first of a cycle of films about post-war Japan which will ultimately ‘beat the subject to death, cinematically’. 1989 Q Dec. 170/4 Rather than flogging one idea to death, as so many punk bands did, Swell Maps could be a light-hearted, shambolic pop group. 2004 11 Sept. (Home ed.) a19/2 It is frustrating to see sportswriters and legal experts alike beat ‘celebrity trials’ to death. P2. to the death. a. As complement expressing a physical consequence. a1325 (c1250) (1968) l. 3591 Of ðo ðe weren to ðis red .xxx. hundred to ðe dead Woren ðane don. 1397 in (2007) 1397/2 He sal be condampnit to the deid. ?c1400 (c1380) G. Chaucer tr. Boethius (BL Add. 10340) (1868) i. pr. iii. l. 204 For þei semeden philosophres, þei weren pursued to þe deeþ and slayn. a1464 J. Capgrave (Cambr. Gg.4.12) (1983) 230 A strong þeef and loksmyth..he was juged to þe deth. a1500 ( (Egerton) (1953) i. xxiii. f. 20v Nero..Dioclician and..othir..purseweres, þat in þat tyme enforsed them to vnscrippe pilgrymes..and elles..putte hem to the deth. c1540 (?a1400) (2002) f. 207 The toun was takon..The kyng & his knightes kild to the dethe. 1563 N. Winȝet (1888) I. 95 To baneis Christianis..and condemne thame to the dethe. 1609 (rev. ed.) iii. xxviii. 96 Impoysoners..shall bee boyled to the death. c1626 H. Bisset (1922) II. 168/31 He wes slane..sittand in jugement quhen he wes persewand trew men to the death for there..geir. c1650 J. Spalding (1851) II. 354 Ane of the..soldiouris..is hangit to the death. 1677 A. Marvell 10 The Pope..does persecute those to the death who dare worship the Author of their Religion instead of his pretended Vicegerent. 1722 R. Wodrow II. iii. ii. 58 They alledged the King had..ruined the covenanted Work of Reformation, and the Liberties of the Nation, persecuted to the Death the Owners of both, [etc.]. 1842 S. Lover ii When he [sc. an attorney] was obliged..to hunt his man to the death. 1871 R. Ellis tr. Catullus lxviii. 113 When those monster birds..his arrow Smote to the death. 1917 2 May 56/1 There never was a day when the Jews were not persecuted, harassed and hounded to the death. 2012 R. R. Parameswaran 35 She stabbed him to the death, bloodied up whole of the room. 1340 (1866) 173 (MED) He praizeþ lite his helþe þet him-zelue yziȝþ zik al to þe dyaþe and naȝt ne wilneþ zone to by hol. c1429 (1986) l. 2697 The beest, wounded to the deth, felle on this Eleazare. c1450 (?c1400) (Cambr. Ee.4.32) (1886) 12 (MED) Ezechias was syke to þe dethe. 1589 T. Nashe sig. Biiv These men..teare that peecemeale wise, which long since by ancient wryters was wounded to the death. a1616 W. Shakespeare (1622) ii. iii. 157 Zouns, I bleed still, I am hurt, to the death. 1741 R. Rawlin v. 205 So must we, when wounded to the death by sin, look to the Lord Jesus Christ for pardon, healing and life. 1831 W. Scott Castle Dangerous v, in (1832) 4th Ser. IV. 53 He may be sick to the death for aught I know. 1882 P. F. Garrett x. 50 Hurt to the death, this brave fellow was not conquered, but lived to wreak deadly vengeance on the hunters. 1942 June 12/3 A world hurt to the death and so much in need of healing, understanding, and fellowship. 1995 J. L. Cunningham (2000) i. 8 He suddenly fell sick to the death from poisoning by oysters. the mind > emotion > intense emotion > [adverb] > in a deeply affecting manner a1375 (c1350) (1867) l. 953 He was a-drad to þe deþ, last sche him dere wold. c1384 (Douce 369(2)) (1850) Matt. xxvi. 38 My soule is sorowful til to the deth. 1569 R. Grafton II. 217 The which Castell the king hated to the death. 1650 16 Jan. 309 The Venetians, Germans, Swedes, and Polonians..now hate English men to the death. 1673 J. Dryden v. i. 70 And she takes it to the death? 1705 R. Traill ii. 27 God foresaw that he would..hate to the Death his Godly Brother. 1847 Nov. 371 The poor devil who was frightened to the death by Ann Nelson's opposition. 1876 23 Dec. 515/1 Quarrels were picked with him; he was thwarted and worried to the death. 1957 A. Rand iii. v. 932 He knew that he was afraid of this place, afraid to the death. 1998 I. Lawrence (1999) v. 45 They'll be worried to the death about you. a1500 (?c1450) viii. 122 These shull the [= thee] love and serue euer to the deth. 1546 sig. A.ii In greate sufferaunce of persecusyon euen to the death. 1586 T. Bowes tr. P. de la Primaudaye I. 275 With such speeches he fought vnto the death. 1600 W. Shakespeare i. iii. 65 You are both sure, and wil assist me? Conr. To the death my Lord. View more context for this quotation 1624 J. Smith iv. 157 Taxing the poore king of treason, who denied to the death not to know of any such matter. 1651 S. Clarke xxxvii. 329 Through Gods mercy, he continued faithful to the death. 1713 C. Place xiii. 292 To..make Men constant to the Death, and not fall away in Times of Persecution. 1795 R. P. Ward II. xiii. 16 To fight to the death, was supposed to be absolutely inexpiable. 1826 W. Godwin II. ii. xxvi. 681 His was a war to the death, and therefore had the utmost aggravation that can belong to a war against the liberty of a nation. 1868 R. H. Major ii. 16 In the right wing was a goodly band of gentlemen who..had resolved to defend to the death the spot on which they might be placed. 1917 R. Viviani in D. E. Watkins & R. E. Williams 132 We were upholding with our incomparable allies—faithful and valiant to the death..—a struggle for the violated rights of man. 1950 A. White iii. ii. 129 Anyone would think you were fighting a duel to the death instead of playing a game. 1961 R. M. Dashwood 158 I will defend to the death my right to be a Floating Voter. 1989 R. G. McGrath in T. R. Gurr (new ed.) I. v. 132 Men fought men with fists, knives, and guns, and they often fought to the death. 2010 7 May w9/4 Which one would have won in a battle to the death. the world > life > death > [verb (intransitive)] OE Homily: Be rihtan Cristendome (Hatton 113) in A. S. Napier (1883) 144 And hu he deað underfeng for us, and hu he us alysde fram deoflum and fram hellewite. c1175 (Burchfield transcript) Ded. l. 165 Forr crist toc dæþ o rode tre All wiþþ hiss fulle wille. c1300 All Souls (Laud) l. 311 in C. Horstmann (1887) 429 Ase he þene deth nam. 1372 in C. Brown (1924) 70 (MED) Suich a detȝ he vnderfeng þat vs helpen may. a1425 (a1400) (Galba & Harl.) (1863) 112 (MED) God tok mans kynd for his sake And for his love þe dede wald take. 1488 (c1478) Hary (Adv.) (1968–9) vi. l. 653 The Erll off Kent..tuk ded befor the king. 1488 (c1478) Hary (Adv.) (1968–9) xii. l. 837 Throuch cowatice gud Ector tuk the ded. the world > life > death > cause of death > cause death [verb (transitive)] OE 67 He [sc. Christ] cwæþ, ‘Eala deaþ, ic beo þin deaþ.’ a1450 (c1375) G. Chaucer (Tanner 346) (1878) l. 226 When that he was glad, then was .I. blithe And his disese was my deth as swithe. c1500 (1895) lv. 331 (heading) How Geffray was the deth of the Erle of Forestz hys vncle. 1558 P. Morwen tr. A. ben David ibn Daud f. lixv Pheroras was banished the kinges presence, the sorow wherof was his death. 1598 W. Shakespeare ii. i. 13 Poore fellow neuer ioied since the prise of Oates rose, it was the death of him. 1662 in (1888) 22 229 Go west to Bessie Neil and spier at her what she did to your wife and your bairn, for she was baith their deads. 1686 T. Jevon i. i. 5 This devilish Termagant Scolding Religious Woman will be the death of him. 1725 A. Ramsay ii. ii Her cheeks, her mouth, her een, Will be my dead. 1773 O. Goldsmith i. 3 A school would be his death. 1816 J. Austen II. iii. 56 Oh! dear, I thought it would have been the death of me! View more context for this quotation 1838 C. Dickens I. xiv. 224 I've been lamed with orange-peel once, and I know orange-peel will be my death at last. 1863 ‘Ouida’ I. iii. 63 A mill-wheel monotony would be the death of me. 1956 S. Beckett i. 35 Estragon (convulsed with merriment). He'll be the death of me! 1960 Dec. 15/1 Jonathan Cole already knew how it had to be done, also that it might be his death. Lifting his musket, he pulled back gently on the hammer. 2002 R. J. Bailey iv. 40 Those stairs will be the death of me. I gotta give up them ready rolls! P5. the world > the supernatural > deity > hell > [noun] > torment of Hell lOE King Ælfred tr. Boethius (Bodl.) (2009) I. xix. 283 Hwæt forstent eow þonne se gilp, huru þam þe se æfterra deað [L. secunda mors] gegripð & on ecnesse gehæfð?] c1384 (Royal) (1850) Apoc. xxi. 8 The pool brennynge with fijr and brunston, that is the secounde deeth [L. mors secunda]. c1400 (?c1380) l. 652 (MED) Þe blod..delyuered vus of þe deth secounde. 1536 tr. G. Gnapheus sig. Mi I wyll graunte it ryght wel that we shal all ryse agayne at the daye of dome, nor in that am not I tempted: but I am more afrayed of the seconde, and eternall death. 1569 A. Golding tr. N. Hemmingsen (new ed.) f. 128v Blissed and holy is he that hath his part in the first resurrection: for vpon them hath the second death no power. 1611 Rev. xxi. 8 The lake which burneth with fire and brimstone: which is the second death . View more context for this quotation 1675 R. Burthogge 61 Is not the State of Hell in Scripture called the Second Death? 1714 T. Swinden xi. 244 The second Death, the Death of the Soul, consisteth in its Separation from God, the Life of Rational Nature. 1802 N. Douglas ii. 27 If the Lord himself has not excluded the second death and its grave, what right have we to exclude them? 1875 E. White (1876) iv. xxvii. 486 This second death is never set forth as a sacrament of immortality. 1921 Dec. 1003/1 The second death is a death of which the first death, the physical death, now destroyed, was but a faint figure. 2011 F. Pride v. xiii. 324 The second death, which the scriptures indicate will be carried out a thousand years from now..and is the death that will truly represent a finality. P6. a1450 (Univ. Coll. Oxf.) (1912) l. 6999 And in this wyse Crystened was he, As syker as deth wyth-outen nay. c1450 (c1380) G. Chaucer (Fairf. 16) (1878) l. 502 But this as soothe as deth certeyne Hyt was of golde. 1594 sig. E4v Trust me kate hadst thou not named the moone, We had gon back againe as sure as death. 1601 B. Jonson i. iv. sig. D2 They would giue out..That I were iealous: nay, as sure as death, Thus they would say. View more context for this quotation 1692 R. Ames 4 Sure as Death, it [sc. flattery] certainly Destroys. 1766 O. Goldsmith I. xix. 208 As sure as death there is our master and mistress come home. 1831 S. E. Ferrier II. xiv. 176 O, as sure as death, then, that's just owning that you are going to be married. 1876 D. Macleod I. iii. 31 (note) Bell said, ‘Maybe ye're richt; but, sure as death, Norman, I canna thole [bear] a fule!’ 1958 J. Kesson i. 14 I got two bob from Mysie Walsh. As sure as death I did. Look at it. 1995 D. Dunnett xxxiv. 436 Sure as death, Simon will come when he hears. 1724 E. Ward 43 Nothing is sure i'th' course of Fortune, But Death and Taxes, they are certain. 1789 B. Franklin Let. 13 Nov. in (1817) 266 In this world nothing can be said to be certain, except death and taxes. 1844 Feb. 71 That every gamekeeper in the cover..would be roused up by it, seemed as certain as death and taxes. 1878 10 July 1/2 The man who is responsible for the saying that ‘nothing is certain but death and taxes’, must surely have been a godless wordling. 1956 2 Apr. 19/2 Nothing is certain but death and taxes—and if we dwelled only on these things, life would be pretty cheerless. 2002 3 Nov. (Sport Monthly Suppl.) 58/1 In recent times, Ashes defeats for England have joined death and taxes [in] terms of certainty. society > morality > moral evil > licentiousness > unchastity > loss of chastity > [noun] > of woman 1631 W. Lisle 10 By tempest tost, with roaring billowes shaken, And, fearing worse than death, by pyrats taken. 1684 J. Banks i. i. 2 'Tis worse than Death for me to hear A fawning Cringer, or submissive Praiser. 1716 J. Johnston 10 Condemned him to worse than Death.., viz. to Poverty, and perpetual Imprisonment. 1810 J. Porter III. iii. 68 But where was he who had delivered herself from a worse fate than death? 1894 H. R. Haggard vi. 40 It is the custom of my mistress to carry a portion of this poison hidden in her hair, since a time might come when she must use it to save herself from worse than death. 1914 E. R. Burroughs xix. 252 [The ape] threw her roughly across his broad, hairy shoulders and leaped back into the trees, bearing Jane Porter away toward a fate a thousand times worse than death. 1952 ‘C. Brand’ vii. 95 Madonna Lily was obviously marked up for a double dose of Worse than Death. 1991 K. Vonnegut xv. 144 A female's loss of virginity outside of holy wedlock was sometimes spoken of as a fate worse than death. 2008 E. Harrison 235 She'd saved me from a fate worse than death—being dateless. P8. like death. a. 1643 H. Burton 16 I was taken with a terrible fit of the Collick, so as Lawrence comming up, told me I lookt like death. 1707 5 Of late I wonder what's with me the Matter, For I look like Death and am as weak as Water. 1765 D. Garrick 14 Pug sickens, mopes, and looks like death, Speaks faintly, and scarce draws his breath. 1828 J. Nichols in 22 He was..a sad spectacle of weakness, and looked like death. 1855 C. L. Gascoigne I. xv. 323 ‘You sometimes look like death, child!’ She could have told him, she often felt like death, too. 1910 L. A. Wilder in A. S. Roe 35 He was like death, and he could hardly speak. 1921 M. McClelland xxvi. 250 ‘I don't know what ails me tonight,’ she said to her mother. ‘I feel like death.’ 1997 J. Hawes (1998) xx. 254 About fifty western businessmen in overnighted, jet-lagged suits, looking like death. the world > health and disease > ill health > [adjective] > in state of ill health or diseased 1924 B. Ruck in 28 Mar. 21 How can any one start feeling intrigued..when they are only that minute over feeling like death warmed up with flu? 1940 25 May 3/5 A lady with a lorgnette—she looked like death warmed over—listened to me yodel. 1941 N. Marsh ii. 40 I look like death warmed up and what I feel is nobody's business. 1945 16 Apr. 26/2 A U.S. liaison officer described these half-starved prisoners as ‘men who look like death warmed over’. 1964 J. Pendower xx. 185 It damned near killed me... I still feel like death warmed up. 2006 C. Langston ii. 15 You look like death warmed over. 1786 R. Burns 25 Then Burnewin comes on like Death, At ev'ry chap. 1804 June 178/1 Some one, in order to illustrate the obstinacy with which a bailiff adhered to an ill-fated debtor, observed, that he stuck to him like grim Death to a dead cat. 1821 Aug. 5/1 Hadding on by the rail like grim death. 1855 J. A. Maitland xxix. 210 That ere foolish idee o' mine clung fast hold on to me like grim death to a marlin' spike. 1867 23 118/1 He clung to the poacher like grim death. a1903 B. Herford (1908) i. 2 An encouragement to them to persevere like grim death. 1928 D. L. Sayers ix. 112 If ever you see him again,..freeze on to him like grim death. 1964 27 Nov. 112/3 You hung on like death and hoped that your end would be painless. 2007 C. Stross (2008) 140 She ducks, still holding on to her hilts like grim death. 1821 J. G. Percival 230 Methought I heard The tread of midnight murderers; then despair Rush'd o'er my feelings and I felt like death. 1839 16 Mar. 301/1 I felt like death to think I had hurt aunt Jane's feelings so much about it. 1899 Dec. 208 I wish Robert's broken engagement could be made up as easy, for his ma and I feel like death about it. 1944 G. S. Patton Jrnl. 1 May in (1974) II. xxiv. 451 I feel like death, but I am not out yet. If they will let me fight, I will. 1996 (Nexis) 15 Aug. 24 She still feels ‘like death’ about the incident. P9. death or glory. 1705 M. Pix iii. 27 These Martial Sounds fire my high wrought Blood, And animates my Soul to Death or Glory. 1746 15 following Pref. Each Greek became an hero at her voice, And death, or glory, was the gen'ral choice. 1818 J. Campbell VII. xxxi. 477 The whole ship's company..wrote on their guns in chalk, ‘Bellerophon! death or glory!’ 1884 G. T. Napier i. 6 Never shall I forget the excitement with which I read on my helmet the motto ‘Death or Glory’. 1913 J. M. Barrie i. 15 If you were one of them, ma'am, and death or glory was the call, you would take the shillings, ma'am. 1959 F. C. Mather i. 23 Headed by a man who called out, ‘March. Death or Glory! The town's our own’, they chased the Deputy Constable over the Gas House wall. 2005 P. Dowswell (2006) xii. 233 ‘Let's give it a try.’.. ‘Death or glory!’ said Richard. society > armed hostility > warrior > [adjective] > qualities or attributes the mind > emotion > courage > daring > reckless daring > [adjective] 1780 in (1860) 35 187 The ‘Death or Glory’ privateer..will leave Calcutta in few days on a five months' cruise against the Dutch, French and Spaniards.] 1806 16 212 Buonaparté's Death or Glory Lads, (a choice regiment of his so called), could not stand the brunt. 1822 R. G. Wallace xvii. 301 The 17th dragoons..are styled the ‘death or glory boys’. 1840 J. Patterson I. iii. 67 She..was..unqualified for the ‘death or glory club’ she frequented every soirée. 1854 H. Schallehn (title) Death or glory galop. 1855 4 425/1 As usual in all such mad death-or-glory expeditions, there were plenty of volunteers immediately. 1890 J. S. Farmer I. 199/1 The 17th [Lancers] are still well-known as the Death or Glory Boys, from their badge, which consists of a death's head, with the words, ‘or glory’. 1922 H. Vardon iv. 77 There are occasions when one has to make a death-or-glory effort. 1962 20 Dec. 6/1 Sir Roy Welensky's death-or-glory approach to political problems. 1998 P. O'Brian v. 148 Do not take me for a bloody-minded man,..a death-or-glory swashbuckling cove. 2011 302/1 (caption) Battle of Elands River. The ‘Death or Glory Boys’ of the 17th Lancers live up to their nickname in Richard Caton Woodville's iconic painting. P10. the world > food and drink > hunting > hunting specific animals > hunt specific animal [verb (intransitive)] > hunt fox > be present when fox killed 1751 T. Smollett I. viii. 61 He was the first in at the death of the deer. 1788 W. Cowper 3 Mar. (1982) III. 119 I have been In at the death of a Fox. 1800 W. Windham (1812) I. 337 For the empty fame of being in at the death. 1841 E. Bulwer-Lytton III. v. ix. 243 A skilful huntsman..who generally contrived to be in at the death. 1906 10 Feb. 5/2 The plot of this odd story wanders off.., leaving the reader to guess what has become of the man who set out to be the hero. However, he comes in all right at the death. 1933 N. Coward ii. iii. 71 You have a tremendous sense of the ‘right moment’, Ernest. It's wonderful. You pop up like a genie out of a bottle, just to be in at the death! 1995 25 Sept. 34/7 Tries in the last ten minutes for Damian Hopley, Mike White and, at the death, Ryan. 2002 N. W. Proctor ii. 52 After cutting off the tail..he tossed the fox back to the dogs and presented the trophy to the most remarkable rider who was ‘in at the death’. the world > relative properties > order > order, sequence, or succession > end or conclusion > the end [phrase] > in the end or at last 1958 F. Norman 172 In the death this geezer got a reprieve. 1962 R. Cook xvi. 157 After all, you had to marry someone in the death. 1761 I. viii. 52 The Doctor seemed still a Friend to Peace; but Dove had hectored and behaved so rude, that his Spirit could not brook it; Death before Dishonour; so fight he would. 1806 J. Davis ix. 51 I will put up my sword in the presence of women; but I shall find time and place. Death before dishonour. 1862 ‘Johannes Scotus’ I. xxii. 237 Before Ellen Ravensworth submits to wrong she will bury this in her heart—death before dishonour. 1904 B. Russell in 13 522 We may imagine a rhetorically minded soldier in battle saying to himself: ‘To advance is to die, to retreat is dishonour; better death than dishonour.’ 1963 15 June 1/3 He has a tattoo on his left forearm, showing a skull and crossbones with the words ‘Death before Dishonour’ written underneath. 2011 (Nexis) 3 Apr. We need all the patriots, the resistance, to take to the streets. There are times when death is better than dishonour. 1792 18 July 2/2 Ça ira then sing, And death to the King. 1794 Feb. 146/2 Here all the representatives rose and took the oath, Death to the Tyrants! 1807 15 Aug. 400/2 Oh! death to the Traitor who caus'd our despair! 1869 17 Aug. 3/3 Cries of ‘Long live the Republic and death to the Monarchy’ were raised by the crowd. 1894 W. T. Stead in 7 May 2/1 The watchword of the Coxeyite agitation is ‘Death to the interest-bearing bond!’ 1960 18 July 32/2 The mob was shouting death to Prime Minister Lumumba and death to all whites. 1981 M. Kester in P. Belsito et al. 47/2 The demonstrators resembled..escapees..from some exotic aviary, brandishing signs that read ‘No Wimp Rock for the 80s’, ‘Death to Hippies’, ‘Down with Disco’. 1992 L. Whisnant (1994) i. iii. 20 Fanatics trash the streets of Tehran, chanting Death to America and burning U.S. flags. 1833 D. Crockett 173 You think they don't go their death upon a jig, but they do. 1833 D. Crockett 74 My little boys at home will go their death to support my election. 1835 A. B. Longstreet 218 I'll go my death upon you at the shooting match. 1868 Oct. 663/1 She would go her death to keep up with our set. 1878 15 400/1 The consulship at Rio Janeiro is vacant, and being worth $6,000, he is moved to ‘go his death on Rio’. 1977 R. Coover 7 Swim or sink, live or die, survive or perish, I'm in fer a fight, I'll go my death on a fight. P14. colloquial (originally U.S.). to be death on (also upon). the world > action or operation > ability > skill or skilfulness > be skilled or versed in [verb (transitive)] > be expert at 1839 5 Oct. 368/3 [His] nose is so red that no musquito can stand the blaze of it. It's death upon gallinipers, too. 1842 10 Mar. We need not say that this medicine is death on colds. 1892 K. Lentzner 19 Death on, good at..‘Death on rabbits’, would mean a very good rabbit shot. 1953 26 Jan. 80/3 A trapper who is death on wild game but easy prey for a pretty girl. 2003 in S. Reimer v. 97 I pastored a church in West Florida, they were death on anything like that, you couldn't have a pool party or anything like that, very strict. 1852 Aug. 269/2 There was a boy in this neighborhood who was death on apples, and he was bound to have some of the old man's best. 1884 E. Fawcett i. 9 Fanny hasn't forgotten you..she was always death on you English chaps. 1892 A. Sykes tr. N. Gogol i. ii. 17 I do it from pure curiosity... I'm death on knowing what's going on in the world. 1973 E. Taylor xiv. 215 They rush around taking photographs and making plaster casts and things. Dr. Priestley is death on that stuff. 2006 J. E. Ames 113 ‘Well, I am death on sausage gravy,’ Yancy surrendered. Compounds C1. a. General attributive. eOE Cleopatra Gloss. in W. G. Stryker (Ph.D. diss., Stanford Univ.) (1951) 308 Manes, deaðas & deaðgodas. OE (2008) 1670 Ic þæt hilt þanan feondum ætferede, fyrendæda wræc, deaðcwealm Denigea, swa hit gedefe wæs. c1175 (Burchfield transcript) l. 18097 All swa..erneþþ all mannkinn Inn hiss dæþshildinesse Fra ȝer to ȝer..Inn till hiss lifess ende. c1275 (?a1200) Laȝamon (Calig.) (1963) l. 3164 Ne leouede he noht half his lif þat him ne com his dæd-sih [c1300 Otho deaþ-siþ]. c1390 in C. Horstmann (1892) 198 He let hym slo Wiþ so gret deþ-pyne and wo. c1450 J. Capgrave (Arun. 396) (1893) v. l. 1751 Soo sodeynly on-to deth for to falle. Som men wene that deth-fal were myserye. a1500 (?a1390) J. Mirk (Gough) (1905) 78 Þat þe fende haue no power of you yn your deth-tyme. 1583 A. Golding tr. J. Calvin cxci. 1186 By these wordes, Before his death, is not meant a yeare or two, no nor yet a moneth, but at his death time, euen when hee was to die. 1609 W. Shakespeare ii. iii. 175 He is so plaguie proud, that the death tokens of it, Crie no recouerie. View more context for this quotation 1692 J. Haines i. i. 8 That wan-Ness shall not accuse, that Death-Look I'll make ruddy with my Breath. 1746 T. Salmon (new ed.) III. 606/1 The unfortunate creature expected her death-stroke as mercy. 1799 Ld. Nelson in (1845) IV. 82 To name Sidney Smith's First Lieutenant to the Death-vacancy of Captain Miller. 1813 P. B. Shelley ix. 116 The melancholy winds a death-dirge sung. 1829 T. Carlyle in Jan. 475 He gave the death-stab to modern Superstition. 1838 E. Bulwer-Lytton i. v. 43 The death-shriek of his agonised father. 1883 A. I. Menken 22 The last tremble of the conscious death-agony. 1917 R. J. Farrer I. iv. 71 The inevitable death-terror impels every human soul. 1963 I. Fleming xvi. 175 Had Campbell got a death pill, perhaps one of the buttons on his ski-jacket or trousers? 1988 J. C. Bell et al. 145 Virulence is determined by three tests: mean death time of chick embryos, [etc.]. 2009 Jan. 2/3 Well, she smil'd and chatted gaily, Though we saw in mute despair The hectic brighter daily, And the death-dew on her hair. (b) 1759 Nov. 404 The sacred fire was already extinguished by his order, and the death-cry communicated thro' all the villages. 1778 J. Carver ix. 334 The number of the death-cries they give, declares how many of their own party are lost. 1899 R. Wildman 43 It was the death cry of a wah-wah monkey facing the cruel jaws of a crocodile. 1944 P. W. Harsh i. ii. 71 At the death cries of Agamemnon the chorus fall into ineffectual dissension. 2005 Mar. 156/1 Little Caesar..immortalized Edward G. Robinson right down to his strangled death cry—‘Mother of mercy, is this the end of Rico?’ 1889 Feb. 351 This Death-Cult calls itself scientific. 1938 W. H. Auden & C. Isherwood iii. ii. 115 Your dreary death-cult is hardly likely to amuse a young lady. 1999 3 May 20/1 They listened to music with nihilistic, suicidal themes—..the death-cult music of Marilyn Manson. 1792 R. Cumberland vi. 196 Christ's death-hour. 1820 W. Scott II. vii. 236 Thy death-hour has struck—betake thee to thy sword—Via! 1932 W. B. Yeats 14 Birth-hour and death-hour meet. 2009 (Nexis) 31 May Hundreds of protesters chanted or wept..as the death hour approached. 1587 A. Fraunce tr. T. Watson sig. E Senses were all weake, and almost gone from Amintas,..death pangs and horror aproched. 1656 A. Cowley Davideis iv. 142 in One would have thought..That Natures self in her Death-pangs had been. 1770 A. Brice i. 9 They'd one another kill; Kill without Physick, and, surprising! see Death-Pangs with Pleasure. 1873 A. Bond 54 Never a death-pang To shadow the greeting. 1946 A. B. Fisher v. 57 Was this the final exchange of talk over the divorce, the death pangs of an unhappy marriage? 2007 L. Thacker 92 Some early Appalachians chose to ease death pangs by placing an open Bible under the dying person's head. 1837 13 Aug. 265/3 The official organ of the Ministers has held out the death-threat! 1903 A. H. Lewis (1904) xi. 140 The Judge lowering from the bench like a death-threat. 2009 29 June 48/3 He has received numerous death threats. 1871 S. S. Hennell ii. iv. 302 In coldness, however, must the worship of Time..have purely surpassed that of Death-worship. 1925 D. H. Lawrence 201 They had found their raison d'être in self-torture and death-worship. 2011 (Nexis) 31 Mar. Replacing an individual's intrinsic love of life with death worship, propelling him on a path that ultimately ends up with him in a suicide jacket ready to become a bloody statistic. b. Objective. See also death-hunter n.OE Homily: In Die Iudicii (Cleo. B.xiii) in A. S. Napier (1883) 188 On muðe and on fæðme þæs deaðberendan dracan, þe is deofol genemned. a1425 (a1382) (Corpus Oxf.) (1850) Josh. Prol. 556 We..owen to ouerpasse with a deef eer the deth berynge [a1425 L.V. dedliche] songis of mermynns. a1586 Sir P. Sidney (1590) iii. xi. sig. Oo8 The..summons of the death threatning trumpet. 1594 W. Shakespeare sig. C1 No noise but Owles, & wolues death-boding cries. View more context for this quotation 1600 W. Shakespeare iii. ii. 365 Death-counterfaiting, sleepe. View more context for this quotation a1616 W. Shakespeare (1623) iii. ii. 47 The death darting [1599 arting] eye of Cockatrice. 1633 J. Ford i. ii. sig. B3 Death-brauing Ithocles. a1711 T. Ken (1721) I. 171 Their Death-subduing King. 1797 A. Seward (1811) IV. 306 Dr. Darwin's impersonization of that death-breathing gale, in the Botanic Garden. 1821 P. B. Shelley iv. 7 As a death-boding spirit. 1861 H. Angus 150 The death-distilling, tornado-breeding atmospheric stagnation of the tropics. 1891 May 59 As a sickness-bearer and a death-bearer it [sc. dust] must be attacked and rendered harmless. 1909 ‘L. Malet’ 162 Rather you than me..on board that death-distributing, space-devouring projectile! 1948 Nov. 152/2 The warning gives exposed areas at a distance several hours to evacuate their coasts..before the death-bearing wave arrives. 1976 R. Fly (1977) 21 ‘Romeo, I come!’ Juliet cries as she drinks the Friar's death-counterfeiting potion. 1996 F. Popcorn & L. Marigold ii. 260 There's a new death-dispenser, Hantavirus, making its sinister rounds. 2011 Mar. 66/1 Some fairly standard Japanese movie furniture—a school setting,..a mobile phone-mediated and death-fetishising youth culture. (b) 1552 R. Huloet Death brynger, or that whiche bryngeth or causeth death,..mortifer. 1714 J. H. Thomson in App. 553 Andrew refused to do so, and courageously told them he could look his death bringers in the face without fear, and that he had done nothing whereof he was ashamed. 1876 Apr. 441 Tell us, O! Fate the death-bringer, whither, O! whither are we Drifting away on the waters of this desolate lonely sea. 1971 1 55 The ranges of imagery now associated with the elderly Warley qualify him to act as a death figure and as a death-bringer to his opposite number. 2012 (Nexis) 14 Sept. Yet others argue that active euthanasia changes the nature of doctors—from being life-savers and healers to being possible death bringers. 1549 M. Coverdale et al. tr. Erasmus II. Jas. iii. f. xxxvv It is either a vayne frute or a deathe bryngyng frute. a1586 Sir P. Sidney (1595) sig. C3 Death-bringing sinnes. 1611 R. Cotgrave sig. Hhhv Mortel,..mortall, deadlie,..death-bringing. 1798 J. B. Davidge 27 This death-bringing air. 1855 June 77/2 The microscope even has not yet perceived the death-bringing venom. 1920 H. B. Alexander in L. H. Gray & G. F. Moore XI. i. 38 ‘Kenaima’, by which the mainland Carib designate a member of the class of death-bringing powers. 2011 V. D. Hanson i. v. 60 Dying was no dread... No, the rub was the sound, and especially the look, of the death-bringing Spartans across the way. 1683 J. Shirley 19 No, thou death dealer, cruel'st of thy Sex, Thy smiles nor frowns shall neither please nor vex. 1787 45 No murd'ring hero, no death-dealer comes. 1809 B. H. Malkin tr. A. R. Le Sage I. ii. iv. 210 The size of the little death-dealer made me hold his anger cheap. 1837 May 69/2 The man who furnishes the death-dealer with a house wherein to carry on his wicked work, is responsible for the results. a1930 D. H. Lawrence (1932) ii. 60 On the sculptured side of the sarcophagus the two death-dealers wield the hammer of death. 2006 ‘T. Reynolds’ (2009) 224 It's that special time of the year again, when death-dealers descend on Newham to enjoy the ‘Defence Systems and Equipment International exhibition’. 1590 J. Sylvester tr. G. de S. Du Bartas Canticle in (1592) 4 Warres death-dealing plaies. 1695 T. Smalbroke 60/2 With his Death-dealing Fauchion, he even depopulated the whole Country, in a few Minutes. 1774 O. Goldsmith VII. 156 This death-dealing creature. 1860 10 574/1 When these death-dealing missiles fell among them. 1960 A. S. Neill 122 In Australia, fear of a spider is rational, for a spider can be death-dealing. 2003 8 Oct. 16/2 The sliced and diced victims of Uma Thurman, the film's death-dealing heroine. ?1614 W. Drummond Sonnet: Lampe of Heauens in Life of all Lifes, Death-giuer by thy flight To Southerne Pole from these sixe Signes of ours. 1835 E. Bulwer-Lytton III. x. ix. 335 ‘Death to the death-giver!’ cried a voice close at hand, and from the grating of the neighboring prison glared near upon him, as the eye of a tiger, the vengeful gaze of the brother of Montreal. 1922 H. W. H. Fischer ix. 162 And as a butcher exhibits his meat.., so the Kaiser showed off the trophies of his skill as a death-giver. 2003 61 268 Life lives!—and time, the death-giver, time, the meaning-giver that annihilates meaning..is murdered. 1598 L. A. tr. G. Fernandez 183 No more fearing his death-giuing-sword, then if hee had that day hurt none. 1725 tr. M. de Cervantes ii. xiii. 136/2 The strange things these Shepherds have told us, as well of the dead Shepherd, as of the Death-giving Shepherdess. 1797 J. Walker (ed. 3) iii. xvi. 259 Sometimes..his opposers..fall under his death-giving gripe. 1882 H. W. Longfellow 39 Life-giving, death-giving, which will it be? 1942 S. Spender 30 Tyrants who wish to freeze institutions into death-giving instead of life-giving forms. 1999 C. Hitchens ii. 40 An hour was spent on the cut-down process, before the death-giving chemicals could kick in. a1500 (?c1450) xxii. 403 (MED) Many of hem were deth wounded. 1597 W. Shakespeare Prol. 9 The..death-markt passage of their Parents rage. c1604 (1938) ii. 30 Haueng hys deathe slayne mistres in hys armes. 1623 P. Massinger v. ii. sig. L4v Secrets that restore To life death wounded men. 1647 H. More i. iii. xxi Through the death-shadowed wood. 1767 W. Harte 12 Empty blossom, and death-blasted leaves. 1787 M. Wollstonecraft (1798) IV. 139 Those mansions, where death-divided friends should meet. 1812 Ld. Byron App. 168 Had brav'd the death-wing'd tempest's blast. 1817 P. B. Shelley x. xiii. 218 The death-polluted land. 1832 W. Motherwell 12 The dark death-laden banner. 1839 H. H. Milman Good Friday in (1840) II. 336 By thy drooping death-dew'd brow. 1871 G. MacDonald iii. iv Death-sheeted figures, long and white. 1879 R. Browning Ivan Ivanovitch in I. 30 Each village death-begirt. 1917 D. H. Lawrence 161 This shuddering, delicious business..of pungent passion, of rare, death-edged ecstasy. 1937 M. Rukeyser 3 Still your death-afflicted eyes must hold the print of flowering guns. 1956 E. Muir (1960) 225 The last stump left Of a death-wounded deer's great antlers. 1983 J. Hobhouse (1984) 193 For the first few days in Acapulco, Gabriella remained withdrawn and death-haunted. 1989 16 Oct. 75/1 Though somber in color and death-shadowed, Life and Nothing But turns into a passionate and funny movie. 1996 July 48/1 Sepultura thrives on death-laden, gruff vocal growls. OE (1932) 1314 Þa com..morðres manfrea myrce gescyrded, deoful deaðreow. OE (2008) 2125 Noðer hy hine ne moston..deaðwerigne, Denia leode, bronde forbærnan, ne on bel [altered in MS to bęl] hladan leofne mannan. c1175 (Burchfield transcript) l. 10436 & tiss dæþshildiȝ mann þatt crist Toc i þe laffdiȝ Marȝe Wass uss full wel..bitacnedd. 1593 T. Nashe f. 68 What makes a number of our wanton wiues in London, conspyre the deaths of theyr old doting husbands, but the discontent of a death-cold bed? 1614 J. Sylvester vi. 210 So, the Saint-Thief, which suffered with our Saviour Was led to Life by his Death-due Behaviour. 1632 J. Vicars tr. Virgil i. 13 Her deare unburied spouses gastly sprite To her appear'd, shew'd his thin death-pale face. 1702 110 Thou dost, in answer to our prayer, A death-devoted victim spare. 1743 E. Young 11 This Death-deep Silence, and incumbent Shade. 1743 P. Francis & W. Dunkin tr. Horace II. iv. xiv. 243 The death-devoted breast. 1776 W. J. Mickle tr. L. de Camoens 350 Death-doom'd man. 1796 R. Southey x. 596 The death-pale face. 1796 T. Townshend 105 What tho' the sigh or wailing voice Can't soothe the death-cold ear. 1834 E. Elliott II. 5 With only one star..in the death-black firmament. 1839 P. J. Bailey 9 Like Asher's death-great monarch. 1863 S. Baring-Gould 259 I can death-doom him as I please. 1864 J. R. Lowell 242 To death-deaf Carthage shout in vain. 1866 W. D. Howells iii. 34 All the floors..are death-cold in winter. 1874 J. Thomson (1880) x. 27 Deathstill, lifesweet, with folded palms she lay. 1896 H. L. Tangye ii. vi. 362 Only one besides myself failed..to put in an appearance either at Bow Street or before the death-condemning judge at Pretoria. 1921 W. de la Mare 91 Rouse the Old Enemy from his death-still swoon. 1932 E. Sitwell 81 They will play with..their death-dark negro slave. 1957 R. Lehmann tr. J. Cocteau (1966) 23 The last of the whirlwind passed, leaving him death-pale as before. 1983 D. Duane 211 In fire or in deathcold, still I am there. 2000 W. Monahan xxxix. 193 Another wave came boiling in behind him, death-white, towering, blasting stones off the jetty. 2004 R. Scruton (title) Death-devoted heart: sex and the sacred in Wagner's Tristan and Isolde. C2. the world > the supernatural > deity > angel > [noun] > angels with specific tasks 1796 R. Southey iv. 262 He knew That this was the Death-Angel Azrael, And that his hour was come. 1855 M. Collins 36 The Death-Angel spares Neither the strong nor feeble. 1909 E. A. Steiner i. vii. 109 I did not need to be told that the death angel had made his sorrow-bringing visitation. 2009 A. S. Byatt (2010) xxxix. 477 The lecture..dealt with Sirens, Snatches and Death-Angels. 1863 G. F. Noyes xiii. 131 Flanked and outnumbered, we can not..remain in this hideous death-angle another instant. 1888 R. Johnson xxiii. 385 The fighting around the ‘death-angle’, as the soldiers called it, was kept up past midnight. 1959 13 13 The cry of the English infantry as they advanced on the death angle: ‘Viva la Regina e poi kelam kelam (kill 'em, kill 'em)’. 1994 J. Von Mehren xxiii. 306 The defenders now had no choice but to storm this point, funneling up..to the walled-in triangle, ‘the death angle’ leading to the entrance to the Corsini grounds where the French were massed. the world > life > biology > organism > fossil > [noun] 1953 251 26 It is here suggested that the terms ‘life assemblage’ and ‘death assemblage’, respectively, be employed as the paleontological equivalents of biocoenosis and thanatocoenosis. 1979 R. Anderton et al. x. 128/2 Faunas are rich in individuals but of low diversity, and occur as current-sorted death assemblages. 2005 M. Bjornerud ii. 52 Most fossil-bearing layers are death assemblages—marine morgues containing biomineralized remains of creatures that had died sometime before they were incorporated into a sedimentary layer. the world > plants > particular plants > fungi > [noun] > stink-horns 1892 F. D. Bergen in 5 105 Phallus sp., death-baby. Salem, Mass. 1965 Winter 512 This morning I seen death baby growing—Stink horns. I dig 'em up, but they grow right back. 1867 XLIII. 1/189 (table) Societies for Burials..Death Benefit. 1896 4 July 1/7 In case of death from accidental cause, stipulated sums will be paid..the amount of salary paid determining the amount of the death benefit. 1935 Nov. 495/3 Ma Bell has been perfectly lovely to her employees. She has a pension plan with disability and death benefits that gives them economic security, even though their wages don't. 1996 L. Gough iv. 49 Most company schemes provide you with a lump-sum death benefit. 2011 (Nexis) 21 Oct. 38 It is extremely important..to ensure your superannuation fund manager knows where you wish your death benefits to be paid. 1745 S. Bolton (ed. 10) i. ix. 100 They who computed the Inhabitants to be a Million in Queen Ann's Time, greatly mistook the Matter; for the Death Bills then were eight Thousand short of what they are now. 1812 1st Ser. 22 972/1 When a proposal is made to emancipate or relieve, you..deliberate for years..; but a death-bill must be passed off hand. 1849 D. Rock II. 383 (note) Abp. Lanfranc..allotted the office of drawing up and sending off these death-bills to the precentor. 1915 Dec. 1440 Some of the deathbills give stories of conversions which are interesting and even dramatic. 1973 15 Mar. 20/1 Johnson..had killed a senate sponsored death bill when it appeared before the Senate Judiciary Committee. 2001 D. A. Brading vi. 120 When the death bills were finally counted, it was found that 40,157 individuals had died during the months when the epidemic haunted the city. 1800 W. Dimond 87 The death-blast swept the main, And smote with perishment the rose of health. 1820 W. Scott III. xi. 352 A bugle sounded loudly..‘It is the death-blast to Queen Mary's royalty,’ said Ambrosius. 1845 Aug. 264 The thought of his daughter, that she might be exposed to the awful fate, wrapped in those volumed flames, came over him like a death-blast. 1875 L. F. Tasistro tr. Comte de Paris I. 456 The storm which in consequence of its periodical return in the beginning of November, sailors call the death-blast. 1911 G. A. J. Cole vii. 135 (heading) The death-blasts of St. Vincent and Martinique. 1921 D. N. Raymond xv. 318 He even whistled the Prussian hallali,—the hunter's death blast. 1930 F. L. Pattee xv. 243 New York City is a sirocco, it is a death blast to the genius it imports; it withers everything it touches. 2000 G. Fraser (2002) xiii. 182 A series of mirrors and lasing rods would have irrevocably pointed the X-ray death blasts towards their selected targets. the world > life > the body > dead body > [noun] the world > the supernatural > the occult > sorcery, witchcraft, or magic > enchantment or casting spells > [noun] > spell > malignant enchantment or curse > pointing-bone 1834 22 Nov. 90/1 Those death bones once contained an immortal spirit! a1875 T. Wade in W. R. Nicoll & T. J. Wise (1895) I. 114 In majesty Of words like pyramids o'er death-bones rising. 1891 E. C. Brewer (1892) 102/1 They went in procession..with chaplets of death-bones at their girdles. 1898 29 Sept. 530/1 The ghost..of some one departed can so initiate an individual into the mysteries of the craft of doctor or medicine man as to enable him, by use of a death-bone apparatus, to produce sickness and death in another. 1933 46 15 Many hillfolk claim to hear another sound called the ‘death bones’ shortly before someone dies. An old woman once said to me: ‘I heerd Lucy's death bones a-rattlin' this mornin', so I reckon she'll be dead afore night.’ 2010 M. Olszowska in B. Goldsmith & G. Lealand 46/2 The victim was murdered by an old aboriginal man, Charlie, who used the ‘death bones’. 1856 J. Torrey in IV. v. iv. 144 This is the Poison or Death Camass of the Northwest Indians. 1884 W. Miller 264/2 Zygadenus venenosus. ‘Death Quamash’, Hog's Potato. 1924 13 Aug. 3/3 Grassy death camas is the most dangerous, followed by meadow death camas and foothill death camas which are about equally potent in producing death. 1958 No. 3. 56/2 Deathcamas (Zygadenus) was common on some slopes in Shirttail Canyon. 2006 (Nexis) 11 May 1 e We saw balsamroot, death camas, and shooting stars on an April hike at Dry Falls. society > authority > subjection > restraint or restraining > restraint depriving of liberty > confinement > [noun] > place of confinement > concentration camp > type of 1849 27 Feb. 2/1 The death-camp of the emigrants at the eastern foot of the Sierra Nevada during the winter of 1846. 1865 Ritual Knights Golden Circle in B. Pitman 301/2 The rank poison which..swathes the heated brow in the death camp. 1902 W. J. Abbot vi. 212 When Melville..reached the spot of the death camp, he came upon a sorrowful scene. 1944 204 In the course of a three-day ‘liquidation’..the Germans killed more than 1,000 Jews in ‘death camps’. 1971 R. Mandell ix. 272 She sued a journalist who claimed that Leni..had gone to a death camp to select a group of Gypsies to be extras. 2004 R. Rash (2005) 143 Women who'd seen so many of their family members and friends die in Pol Pot's death camps that they had willed themselves blind. the world > the supernatural > supernatural being > ghost or phantom > [noun] > light appearing over corpse > light as omen of death the world > matter > light > artificial light > an artificial light > candle > [noun] > used at specific times or in certain places 1808 R. Southey 411 Among the Greeks it is lit upon the birth of a child,..and if the child be a first born, carefully laid aside for his death candle; it is then buried with him. 1820 A. Sutherland IV. iii. 23 She had for three nights in succession seen a death-candle flitting..along the cliffs. 1905 H. Sutcliffe xiii. 183 He broke off, seizing the other by the arm and leading him to the ten bodies that lay quiet beneath their death-candles. 1964 75 44 The belief expressed in English in the name of the death-watch beetle appears in Scots in deid- (death) candle or deid-licht, a kind of will-o-the-wisp seen before a death. 1993 J. Daniels 4 My mother prayed the rosary in front of the hollow crucifix in her room that slid open to reveal death candles hidden for last rites' blessing. the world > plants > particular plants > plants perceived as weeds or harmful plants > poisonous or harmful plants > harmful or parasitic fungi > [noun] > poisonous fungi > death-cap 1922 A. H. R. Buller II. viii. 217 As is well known, one not infrequently finds in English woods slug-damaged fruit-bodies of the Death Cap, Amanita phalloides..and other poisonous species. 1949 II. 172/1 Many fungi are mildly poisonous, but only one British species, the Death Cap, is deadly poisonous. 2010 16 Sept. 9/8 Death caps contain the toxin alpha-amanitin. Just 5–10mg can kill and the average death cap contains 30–90mg. 1797 M. Robinson III. lxiv. 218 My lord here, that is travelling home in our death-cart, has a coffin as thick as a stone-wall. 1841 G. Borrow II. iii. ii. 60 The death-carts..went through the streets..picking up the dead bodies. 1948 S. Gilbert tr. A. Camus iii. i. 164 This system..was really a great improvement on the death-carts driven by negroes. 1994 R. Davies 262 I drove an ambulance, you remember. More like a death-cart sometimes. society > authority > punishment > imprisonment > prison > [noun] > cell > for those condemned to death 1825 T. Doubleday ii. iv. 105 They drag them to their death-cells through the streets. 1863 R. Therry i. 22 The day before the one fixed for his execution Webber sent..an earnest request that I should visit him in the death-cell. 1938 S. Fisher in O. Penzler (2007) 482/1 I kept watching the clock..and thinking of Tommy up there in San Quentin in the death cell pacing back and forth. 2012 (Nexis) 11 Nov. 54 In the town hall at Poperinge are two death cells where British soldiers awaited firing squads. society > communication > record > written record > [noun] > official record > specific 1850 8 75 It seems a great hardship that..a medical attendant, by refusing the usual death certificate, can subject the friends and other medical advisers..to all the annoyances of a coroner's inquest. 1893 21 Sept. 4/6 When Mrs Pond died the death certificate was duly forwarded to the board of health, and was signed by Dr Emily Bruce. 1921 21 Mar. 1/2 His physician issued a death certificate, arrangements were made for the funeral and Saturday's newspapers published eulogies of him. 1989 J. Wylie (1990) vi. 121 Residents complained that the people stripping the neighborhood were helping to sign its death certificate. 2012 (Nexis) 15 Sept. (Travel section) 11 The death certificate gave cause of death as heart failure. society > authority > punishment > capital punishment > [noun] > electrocution > electric chair 1842 T. Miller II. xlv. 328 Perhaps he was dead,—we dared not stop to enquire..; and when we turned our heads, the solemn-looking men and the death-chair had gone. 1862 22 Mar. 188/1 In the chapel [of Newgate prison], we saw..the death-chair, as it is called, where those who are under the capital sentence always sit. 1869 Mrs. H. Wood II. ii. xxvii. 85 At Helstonleigh, when they met over John Ollivera's death chair. 1883 6 June (headline) An electrical death chair. 1919 R. Kipling (1920) 269 Pinioned men in the death-chair before the current is switched on. 1920 C. R. Moss 329 The death chair is generally completed and the deceased placed in it within two hours after death. 1948 May 43/2 If I've got to go to the death chair, I want you fellows to help me put it off as long as possible. 2011 (Nexis) 25 Feb. ‘Old Sparky’ was fired up for the last time when 29-year-old, two-time murderer James D. French sat in the death chair. 1641 R. Carpenter i. xiii. 90 Some [on their death-beds] looke frightfully, and fill their death-chamber with shreeks, and clamours. 1795 T. Wilkinson II. 8 A church has often been subject to the like dreadful visitation with an allotted death chamber of repose. 1844 C. Ponsonby I. x. 258 The damp sickly smell inseparable from death-chambers and the fast-changing clay. 1903 J. J. McGovern i. 26 The events in the death chamber immediately following the Pope's death were of impressive solemnity. 1932 L. E. Lawes 1 It is my legal duty to be present physically in the death chamber. But actually I have never seen an execution. 2009 I. Thomson ix. 121 In the death chamber different nooses hung over the trapdoor. the world > life > death > obsequies > funeral equipment > [noun] > pall the world > life > death > disposal of corpse > preparation or treatment of corpse > [noun] > laying or wrapping in shroud > shroud 1699 Bp. G. Burnet iv. 59 Christ arose and left the Death-Cloaths behind him. 1838 J. Bosworth Deað-rægl, death-cloth, pall. 1905 D. Gerard xix. 255 The white stripes of the ‘death-cloth’ in which he had been saying his prayers. 1972 C. Cawed p. viii It is wrapped with the fachala (death cloth) and placed inside a pine-log coffin. 2011 J. T. Moore (ed. 2) iii. xx. 304 Even though no one knows how the image of the man was imprinted on the Shroud, C-14 dating has proven that it's not the death cloth of Jesus. the world > life > death > killing > killing for specific reason > [noun] > mercy killing 1917 E. Paul & C. Paul 297 Voluntary death-control is the remedy for the curse of senility. 1924 5 Feb. 5/5 (advt.) Birth control os a popular subject. But how about death control?.. Have you made any real sensible effort to delay the hand of Father Time? 1955 (Polit. & Econ. Planning) i. i. 9 Whereas death-control has always been actively fostered by Governments, birth-control has almost always been left to voluntary action. 1992 8 Oct. 3/1 The prolongation of life by modern medicine and hygiene, or..the introduction of death control without birth control. society > authority > punishment > capital punishment > hanging > [noun] > gallows > parts of > noose or rope 1804 J. Baillie Constantine Paleologus iii. i, in 348 Have I done well to give this hoary vet'ran..To the death-cord unheard? 1880 27 Mar. 2/1 To make it slip freely that portion of the death-cord near the noose was rubbed with Castile soap. 2011 J. D. Cress v. 84/2 The farmer tied binder twine tightly around each throat using an iron pin from a bed frame to knot the death cord. the world > plants > particular plants > plants perceived as weeds or harmful plants > poisonous or harmful plants > harmful or parasitic fungi > [noun] > poisonous fungi > death-cap 1897 10 Dec. 886/2 The two fatal cases reported were caused by the fly amanita (Amanita muscaria..) and the death cup (Amanita phalloides). 1904 6 Oct. 10/1 The ‘death-cup’ is very abundant in woods in this country. 2003 2 Nov. nj 1/4 You might also find the notorious death cup (amanita phalloides) or a destroying angel (amanita virosa), a mushroom so deadly that one cap could kill a person. 1766 XLIV. Index Holben, his famous death-dance. 1769 F. Brooke III. cl. 107 Some of them have led the death dance at the execution of English captives. 1822 T. F. Dibdin 211 It [sc. ‘the Skeleton Page’] was intended to exhibit some specimens of the ancient death-dance border. 1865 F. Parkman Champlain vii, in 275 The ghostly death-dance of the breakers. 1912 A. E. Crawley in V. 69 At the annual death-dance deceased women are personated not by women but by men. 1967 H. S. Gochberg i. 22 The infernal death-dance of the circle of cadavers. 2009 D. Starnes & N. Luckham (ed. 8) 46 In times of war, men performed the cibi (death dance). 1676 R. Shotterel & T. D'Urfey 5 What glorious Characters may Shooting gain? Whose use the death-defying Romans priz'd. 1722 J. Jones tr. Oppian iv. 155 But inky Cuttles further still improve In bold Pursuit, and Death-defying Love. 1801 Nov. 1007/2 Once high in praise for its stone-girt honours, in mighty walls and death-defying gates. 1878 ‘G. Eliot’ in July 168 What is martyrdom But death-defying utterance of belief? 1950 W. de la Mare 68 This death-defying acrobat. 2007 C. MacFarlane (2009) vii. 66 These serial flicks inevitably ended up with the hero being left hanging on to a cliff or in some other death-defying situation. the world > life > death > killing > man-killing or homicide > murder or assassination > [adjective] 1590 E. Spenser ii. iii. sig. O7v Hold your dead-doing hand. a1637 B. Jonson Tale of Tub ii. vi. 30 in (1640) III Put up Your frightfull Blade; and your dead-doing looke. 1641 Earl of Monmouth tr. G. F. Biondi I. iii. 137 Those of Roan were secretly admonished by the Duke to surrender themselves upon the best tearms they could. A death doing adue, which did utterly astonish and affright them. 1702 C. Mather i. ii. 8/2 Such Dead-doing Things, as Powder and Shot. 1778 J. Wesley 5 Will these dead-doing men..be in haste to cut off all the old, weatherbeaten Englishmen? 1836 E. Howard II. iv. 34 In thy death-doing might I'll defy thee, Yellow Jack! 1915 J. J. Chapman xii. 182 Some policy which seems harmless..turns out to involve death-doing consequences. 1994 in A. Sarat & T. R. Kearns 174 The legitimation of law's violence cannot rest securely in any sanitized renaming of the death-doing, life-destroying instrumentalities of law itself. 1601 R. Chester 39 Many Death-doore-knocking Soules complaine. a1714 E. Freke (2001) 218 Mr Freek fell sick of an ague and feaver to death doore. 1839 Mar. 191 He..seemed to carry into the death-door at which he entered something like hope to the doomed! c1850 J. T. Ramsay 194 The hale and hearty swearing they were sick—the death-door patient always on the mend. 1893 W. M. Taylor 237 When you do your worst upon him, you but open the death door through which he passes into the presence chamber of his Lord. 1960 W. Ratigan i. ix. 37 The Griffin sailed away toward a death door unmarked on any chart. 2006 C. Gerard ii. 14 Okay, worrywart, you can wipe that death-door look off your face... I'm fine. the world > food and drink > hunting > fishing > fishing-tackle > means of attracting fish > [noun] > artificial fly > types of the world > animals > invertebrates > phylum Arthropoda > class Insecta > subclass Pterygota > [noun] > division Exopterygota or Hemimetabola > order Ephemeroptera > family Ephemeridae > ephemera vulgata 1766 R. Brookes (new ed.) 77 Death-drake... Taken chiefly in an Evening, when the May-fly is almost gone. 1834 Aug. 249/2 May.—All the flies and hackles enumerated. In addition to these we have: the greendrake,..the death drake, the yellow miller or owl-fly. 1866 I. E. B. Cox 4 The Death Drake.—Body, ostrich herl mixed with peacock's, silver twist, black hackle; wing, of the dark copper feather of a mallard. 1898 21 May 368/1 If you have..a good supply of Ogden's ‘Gems’.., with a few of his Death Drakes (winged and hackled), you will be able to kill trout on any water in the world where they take the natural May Fly. 1972 J. McDonald v. 53 The death drake and the coffin fly, with their common paleness, form another verbal bond between the green drakes of Britain-Ireland and the United States. But the (false) legend of the death drake has disappeared. the mind > mental capacity > psychology > theory of psychoanalysis > theories of Freud > [noun] > death instinct 1896 H. W. Elliot 77 Ever since 1879-1882 the surplus young male seal life has been sensibly feeling the pressure of the overland death drive. 1917 O. A. Marti iii. 37 They felt fully justified in putting France out of the way, a fact that was fully proven at the outbreak of the present war when as a first move Germany attempted a death drive to the very heart of the republic. 1932 May–June 7/2 He spoke of a ‘death drive’ which existed in a number, ‘if not a majority’, of normal individuals, and said that suicidal trends often took root in childhood. 1990 (Nexis) 10 June 16 She believes firmly that children are born innocent of Oedipal desires and death-drives. 2013 (Nexis) 11 June 29 [He] arrived here in 1938, fleeing the Nazi death drive. society > trade and finance > fees and taxes > impost, due, or tax > tax > types of tax > [noun] > estate or inheritance taxes 1852 x. 91 When Pitt..induced Parliament to impose a death duty on personal property, his proposal for a similar tax on real property was ignominiously thrown out. 1894 W. Harcourt Speech in Commons 16 Apr. in 4th Ser. 23 485 The Death Duties have grown up piecemeal, and bear traces of their fragmentary origin... There exist at present five duties—the Probate Duty, the Account Duty, the Estate Duty.., the Legacy Duty, and the Succession Duty. 1900 1 Dec. 20/2 When he died, his estate paid death duty on four and a half million dollars. 1938 P. White 16 Feb. (1994) i. 13 My inheritance seems to be disappearing in death duties. 1969 ‘M. Innes’ xi. 123 When my father died, we had to have fellows in to value things. Probate, you know. Damned iniquitous death-duties. 2012 J. E. Stiglitz vi. 167 Critics of the estate tax call it a death duty and suggest that it is unfair to tax death. the world > health and disease > ill health > a disease > types > [noun] > fatal disease c1300 (Harl. 2277) (1845) l. 2211 (MED) A monek..in his deth uvel lay, And his Abbot..conjurede him that he scholde after his deth uvel..telle him..in which stat he were. ?a1400 (a1338) R. Mannyng (Petyt) ii. 32 At Gloucestre dede euelle him toke. c1450 (1900) 186 Whanne god settyth þe in stockys of sykenes, or in prisoun of deth-euyll. 1871 E. F. Staveley Index 387/2 Beetles..death-feigning. 1924 J. A. Thomson vi. 33 The ‘death-feigning’ or ‘playing 'possum’ of various animals. 1997 G. S. Helfman et al. xviii. 324/2 This is the only known example of thanatosis, or death feigning, in fishes. 2001 G. C. McGavin 130 The main defensive strategy in stick insects is crypsis and death feigning. 1866 E. F. Staveley iv. 233 Its legs are more untidy and sprawling than is usual in the death-feigning spiders. 1916 S. J. Holmes xi. 215 The death-feigning instinct in these forms had its origin in an accentuation of the thigmotactic response. 1997 G. S. Helfman et al. viii. 108/2 Very different solutions to catching mobile prey. Examples include lie-in-wait and luring predators (goosefishes.., death-feigning cichlids), [etc.]. the world > the supernatural > supernatural being > ghost or phantom > [noun] 1826 C. E. Horn (title of song) ‘The Moon is on the Hill’, a ballad, sung..in the new operatic romance called Death-Fetch, or the Student of Gottingen, etc. 1829 W. Maginn I. xiii. 294 The tales of death-fetches and banshees, so often and so variously told by the superstitious peasants of his native hills. 1891 Oct. 815/1 Any unusual occurrence fell under the suspicion of being a death-fetch. 1994 D. Schweitzer in M. Kaye 367 Do you know what I mean when I say I have seen my death-fetch? the mind > emotion > hatred > hostility > state of bitter and lasting mutual hostility > [noun] > deadly feud 1805 W. Scott i. viii. 13 Can piety the discord heal, Or staunch the death-feud's enmity? 1870 E. S. Creasy II. i. 13 The native Irish continued to wage their local wars,..their family death-feuds. 1932 80 418 The extent to which the continual death feuds affect every custom of the Jibaros' daily life is soon realized. The men are never found far from their weapons. 2007 (Nexis) 7 May e1 The death feud between Peter's best friend, Harry, and himself had to be settled. the world > the supernatural > supernatural being > ghost or phantom > [noun] > light appearing over corpse 1806 T. L. Peacock 70 Thy meteors, oh Norver! malignantly dart, And such are the death-flames that burn in my heart. 1813 J. Hogg i. ii. 68 That fays and spectres..spread the death-flame on the wold. 1897 G. C. Smart in A. Reid 423/1 The fierce, gaunt spirit of the storm Rides chafing o'er the troubled deep, The death-flames flash around his form. 2001 L. Erdrich vii. 120 She incandesced into her death-flame, fiercer and brighter, until all of a sudden her lungs filled. the world > life > death > obsequies > [noun] > flowers 1813 Sept. 237 And death flowers blossom o'er my early grave. 1870 E. A. Dupuy xxvi. 320 Better not even let the death flowers brush your hand, for their contact may bring you sorrow. 1922 J. Joyce ii. xv. [Circe] 552 The deathflower of the potato blight on her breast. 1999 M. Bowman in T. Walter iv. xiv. 224 Older people tend to associate white lilies with death and funerals, to the extent that some will ask him to ensure there are none in bouquets as they are ‘death flowers’. the world > life > death > [noun] > death throes 1831 Sept. 27/2 The morning's work..had brought a whale to his death-flurry. 1841 Jan. 105 The flapping of tails and fins in the ‘death flurry’ of huge Saurians. 1860 T. P. Thompson (1861) III. ci. 2 The convulsive effort,—‘death-flurry’ as the whalers call it,—which is taking place in America on the subject of slavery. 1908 May 577 The death flurry often met with in Fowl Cholera. a1939 T. K. Whipple (1943) 79 A literature infatuated with death has gone into its frantic death flurry. 2009 A. E. Beidler 71 Better to be struck down by the lashing tale of a frenzied whale in its death flurry. society > trade and finance > financial dealings > insurance > [noun] > insurance policy > specific types of policy 1993 25 July i. 1/3 The product has been called ‘death futures’, or speculating in death—the sooner the policyholder dies, the faster the return. 1995 (Nexis) 25 Nov. a10 In the ‘death futures’ business, a bad disease becomes a good investment. And a life-insurance policy that normally pays out after death provides cash during life—in exchange for profits for an investor. 2000 (Electronic ed.) 27 Dec. (heading) ‘Death futures’ come to Ontario. 2011 (Nexis) 4 Dec. 92 The idea originated..as a consequence of the 1990s Aids crisis, when relatively young people had far shortened life expectancies and needed ready cash for medical treatment... The trade earned the ominous monikers of ‘death bonds’ or ‘death futures’. 1819 Apr. 300/1 For thy look, like the comet's pale death-glare, was feared, And thy path, as where Death and his ministers move. 1839 Nov. 869/3 Haggard elms and sable larches Threw a death-glare on the ground, Lofty pines with leafy arches Stood like ruined aisles around. 1867 Dec. 273 He will see the blood-stained head and face; and the eyes, whose death-glare he did not see, will stare at him, and Martin Prévost will clutch his hand and lead him up to the eternal tribunal. 1912 18 Jan. 74/2 I saw the death-glare in his eyes, I saw his life-blood flow. 2010 (Nexis) 14 Sept. 36 I think people could tell I was naked because all the women gave me death glares! society > trade and finance > fees and taxes > grants and allowances > [noun] > state allowance > other state benefits 1883 A. Hewitson 108 It [sc. a Roman Catholic Guild] was supported by monthly contributions from the members: its advantages included allowances during sickness, medical attendance, and death grants. 1946 9 & 10 Geo. 6 c. 67 § 22 A person shall be entitled to a death grant in respect of the death of any person..if..he has reasonably incurred..expenses..in connection with the funeral of the deceased. 1971 293/1 The Government makes a lump-sum payment, called a death grant, to the next-of-kin of a person who has died, or to the person paying for the funeral. 2000 W. Self (2001) viii. 186 As I trolled towards the corner shop, with my death grant jingling in my dress pocket, I was buoyed up. the world > movement > absence of movement > hold or holding > [noun] > firmness of hold > grip or grasp 1792 Sept. 287/2 The gentleman who struggled with him held a death grip of the pistol he fired. 1855 July 253/1 Still holding on to my enemy with a death-grip, I felt myself falling..it seemed to unfathomable depths! 1912 Mar. 195/1 The fact is that those nations are held in a death grip by Islam. 1941 P. Sturges E27 The girl gets a death-grip around Sullivan's neck. 1991 M. Halvorson 96 Visions of sliding sideways down the huge hill at Cochrane danced vividly through my head. I clutched the wheel in a death grip, glued my eyes to the road and forged on. 2003 2 Mar. 46/3 Nobody knows what will happen when Saddam Hussein's death grip on his country is finally broken. the world > life > death > [noun] > symbolized 1569 S. Batman sig. H.iii The woman signifieth pride:..the death head which she setteth her foote on, signifieth forgetfulnes of the life to come. 1748 J. Wesley II. 127 They are mere Death-heads; they kill innocent Mirth. 1851 H. W. Longfellow iv. 197 None of your death-heads carved in wood. 1914 Aug. 182/2 Beneath its green fertility there lie The bones and death-heads of the unavenged. 2000 R. Barger et al. v. 87 He met this little hippie chick in Marin County and asked her to make him a death head ring for his club. 2005 C. Brookmyre (2006) 49 So many abrasives, detergents, poison warnings, death-heads, bio-hazard decals. the world > health and disease > ill health > a disease > types > [noun] > fatal disease a1500 (c1425) Andrew of Wyntoun (Nero) vii. l. 3324 In til his ded il qwhen he lay. 1574 J. Davidson in C. Rogers (1874) 123 It was his dead ill, what shuld mare? a1658 J. Durham (1675) To Rdr. sig. [d]v The death-ill of a natural unrenewed man. 1822 J. Galt II. viii I doubt his death-ill will lie at your door, Sir Thomas. 1873 J. Hamilton 300 Syne Tam teuk his deid-ill, an' whan he was gane, Auld Mysie was left in the hoose a' her lane. the mind > mental capacity > psychology > theory of psychoanalysis > theories of Freud > [noun] > death instinct 1883 1 Mar. 295/2 In the heavy slumbrous air of the tropics the Angel of Pestilence is..preparing to swoop with the death instinct of the vulture and the fierceness of the condor. 1921 2 148/1 Freud feels obliged to recognize them [sc. the sexual instincts] as an exception to the instincts for death, as instincts for life which probably from the very beginning strove against the death-instincts. 1922 C. J. M. Hubback tr. S. Freud vi. 38 The opposition between the ego or death instincts and the sexual or life instincts would then cease. 1961 J. A. C. Brown ii. 27 The Death instinct is a force which is constantly working towards death. 1998 (Nexis) 24 July 14 The bookish Cobain knew that the nirvana principle was Freud's early conception of the death instinct. the world > life > death > obsequies > [noun] > bell > knell, peal, or stroke 1773 P. Brydone xxiii. 74 Every stroke of the flint sounded in Pasqual's ears like his death-knell. 1795 8 Let the vile Phalanx that close hems Thee round, With pallid cheeks hear the unwelcome sound. The direful death-knell of their lawless Hope. 1815 W. Scott vi. xviii. 246 I must not Moray's death-knell hear! 1869 11 Sept. 1058/1 The united cry of North and South will sound the death-knell of tenant injustice and of agrarian crime in Ireland. 1937 (Federal Writers' Project) ii. 84 The death knell was three strokes for a man, two for a woman, followed by strokes to the number of the dead person's years. 2002 C. Slaughter (2003) i. 19 For England and her Empire, it was the death knell, the beginning of the end. the world > life > death > obsequies > monument > [noun] > other types of memorial the world > relative properties > relationship > imitation > [noun] > cast or impression > mask 1838 14 Apr. 54 Benedict's opera..is founded upon a tale entitled the Death Mask. 1853 W. G. Simms xvii. 169 Frederick..would wish to cure me of my fears... He has provided this death-mask. 1877 E. Dowden (Macmillan Lit. Primers) ii. 29 There exists a death-mask..which bears the date 1616 and which may be the original cast from the dead poet's face. 1911 J. Galsworthy 142 High on the wall above these reigned the bronze death-mask of a famous Apache Chief, cast from a plaster taken of the face by a professor of Yale College. 1982 A. Gabbey in T. M. Lennon et al. 197 (note) An allusion to Valari's wax death-mask of Descartes. 2012 M. Clark x. 136 (caption) Death-mask known as the ‘Mask of Agamemnon’. Gold repoussé. society > leisure > sport > types of sport or game > fighting sports > wrestling > [noun] > bout > type of 1953 22 May 6/6 Promoter Tom Mahoney's Bell Auditorium wrestling card, headlined by a Texas Sudden Death match in which Henry Harrell will oppose Tex Riley.] 1958 7 Feb. 20 (advt.) Death Match to a finish Rip Rogers vs Bulldog Plechas. 1993 Re: About Doom & Modem Play in comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.action (Usenet newsgroup) 8 Nov. My understanding of Death Match Mode is that player start will be random. 2001 8 July i. 21/4 For decades now, the two [tabloids] have been engaged in a smack-down death match in which the term ‘exclusive’ is liberally applied, the ‘canoodling’ of B-list celebrities is deemed worthy of print, [etc.]. 2006 Apr. 143/2 Just because you're in a car it doesn't change the rules of deathmatch. Use nitro to move as fast as you can and never let another car ram you. 2011 (Nexis) 27 Dec. a9 I'm not a wrestling fan, but I'd pay big money to see John Boehner and Nancy Pelosi square off in a Texas Death Match. society > leisure > the arts > music > type of music > pop music > [noun] > heavy metal > types of 1984 (title of record) Death metal. 1987 20 Mar. 19/2 Punk and metal are mingling into a hybrid variously called ‘speed’, ‘thrash’ or even ‘death’ metal. 1999 M. Silcott iv. 114 They confused Satanism with Ozzyland heavy-metalism, saluting each other with the sign of the Beast, wearing badges that proclaimed ‘I love death metal’. 2010 (National ed.) 19 July c1/3 Of rising bands, among the most promising were Whitechapel and Suicide Silence, a pair of brutal groups playing deathcore, a brand of metalcore taking influences from death metal. the world > plants > particular plants > moss > [noun] > Spanish moss 1838 J. Pardoe I. 247 On many..venerable pines hung wreaths of the greyish-coloured, silken parasite which is called in ‘wood-craft’ the death-moss. 1875 T. Yelverton I. xiv. 157 The weird ‘death-moss’ festooning the trees caught the tints of the rainbow, and became resplendent with bright scarlet, green, and purple. 1913 J. McElroy I. xv. 103 Their branches are hung with heavy festoons of the gloomy Spanish moss, or ‘death moss’, as it is more frequently called, because where it grows rankest the malaria is deadliest. the world > animals > invertebrates > phylum Arthropoda > class Insecta > Heterocera > [noun] > family Sphingidae > acherontia atropos (death's-head moth) the world > the supernatural > supernatural being > mythical creature or object > [noun] > imaginary persons or creatures 1820 J. Keats Ode on Melancholy in 140 Nor let the beetle, nor the death-moth be Your mournful Psyche. 1910 M. J. Cawein ii. 72 The death-moth ticks behind the tapestry; And ever above and all around me is The ceaseless winnowing of unearthly wings. 2010 (Nexis) 18 Sept. c1 He says he felt something in his throat, like a ‘death moth’ had flown through the window and into his mouth. the world > food and drink > hunting > signals > [noun] > signal on horn 1575 G. Gascoigne xlii. 127 When the Harte is kylled, then all the huntesmen whiche be at fall of him, shall blowe a note, and whoupe also a deade note. 1794 Edwina in W. Hutchinson II. 11 The death-notes issue from the brazen horn, And from th' enormous trunk, the head is torn. 1821 W. Scott III. viii. 136 The horns again poured on her ear the melancholy yet wild strain of the mort, or death-note. 1920 J. Masefield 78 That devil's horn Its quavering death-note blew. 2011 K. Emerson xxxvii. 183 Only after he stood back did the other huntsmen blow the ‘death’ notes for the hart. 1870 8 Oct. (advt.) Marriage and Death Notices, Free. 1906 29 Dec. 794/1 Very rarely nowadays is the field-cornet troubled in this connection, as almost invariably the death notice is sent direct to the nearest magistracy. 2013 (Nexis) 19 Apr. 12 Like most people of a certain age, I read the newspaper death notices religiously every morning. society > authority > punishment > capital punishment > [noun] 1836 C. Jillson in J. Reed 184 A concise and authentic account of all the executions which have transpired in this county, together with biographical sketches of those who have here suffered the Death Penalty. 1875 E. White (1878) ii. xiv. 155 The death-penalty of the law of Moses. 1947 ‘P. Wentworth’ xxxiv. 236 Proof that he had been concerned in treasonable correspondence with the enemy would certainly have meant a serious term of imprisonment, if not the death penalty. 1979 6 July 26/2 The plan is for an unwhipped vote on a motion covering the principle of the return of the death penalty. 2012 (National ed.) 19 Feb. (Front section) 9/6 The charge carries the death penalty. 1753 tr. King James VI. & I. in W. Maitland viii. 489/1 By these Presents do give and grant, and for us and our Successors, perpetually confirm to our beloved the Minister, Elders, and Deacons of the Church Session of Leith..in the Name and Behalf of the Poor of the Hospital of the same, present and to come, all the Lands, tenements,..Dail-silver, Death-pennies, [etc.]. 1863 G. J. Whyte-Melville III. 258 Scatter a handful of dust over my forehead, and lay the death-penny on my tongue. 1898 29 Sept. 743/1 The miner lay in bed,..his eyes marked with dull circles, as if the death-penny had already lain on them a long time. 1905 Nov. 463 It was like booking a passage across the dark Unseen: crossing the Styx, with Charon at the prow. And instinctively I fumbled for the death penny. 2002 E. Chadwick xliii. 503 His eyelids suddenly felt as if someone had weighed them down with death pennies. the world > life > death > disposal of corpse > cremation > [noun] > pile or pyre 1791 Sept. 846/1 Death-piles on all sides always blazed. 1851 E. B. Browning ii. v. 89 Had the death-piles of the ancient years Flared up in vain before me? 1905 J. B. Bury v. 86 Croesus built a timber death-pile in the court of his palace to escape the shame of servitude to an earthly conqueror. 1991 M. Dorris & L. Erdrich (1999) 320 The lit taper I will use to ignite my own death pile. the world > life > death > [noun] > death-rate 1849 7 Nov. 2/3 In comparing one local death rate with another, it is requisite to remember that..there is a tendency from time to time to the recurrence of epidemic pestilence. 1909 B. C. Marsh Introd. 7 The following statistics show the death rates in certain congested blocks in New York. 1958 M. E. Faegre & J. E. Anderson (ed. 8) iv. 49 The death rate from measles in 1954 was twice as high from birth to two years as it was from three to four years. 2002 18 Apr. i. 5/1 A startling increase in death rates during hot snaps. the world > life > death > [noun] > death throes > sound of 1781 J. Murray 59 Here the death-rattle stopped his speech. 1821 13 Oct. 654/2 Averse as we are to the hysterics, convulsions, and death-rattles of modern competition on the stage, she wanted expression and feeling. 1829 E. Bulwer-Lytton III. vi. iv. 243 His lips quivered wildly—I heard the death-rattle. 1924 Dec. 447/1 The increasingly audible death rattle of the Ku Klux Klan. 1998 C. Mims (1999) v. 112 The face twitches, breathing becomes difficult and a ‘death rattle’ is occasionally heard. 2008 8 Dec. 13 Summer's vogue for harlequin prints and Pierrot collars was the last death rattle of frippery. society > armed hostility > military equipment > weapon > fire, radiation, or chemical weapons > [noun] > ray gun > ray 1896 11 Aug. 5/1 (headline) Old Sol's death rays. 1903 G. C. Griffith xxxi. 296 Those who were out of reach of the terrible death-rays saw six long guns rise from the masked batteries. 1947 J. G. Crowther & R. Whiddington 4 The public had already begun to long for death-rays that would dispatch the strongest enemy at will. 1963 386 Unlikely rumours were also heard that it might be developed as a military death ray or anti-missile weapon. 2009 V. Coren xxi. 291 I must turn that aggression against him, like a superhero reflecting an opponent's powerful death-ray right back into the villain's own eyes. the world > life > death > [noun] > death roll 1803 J. McCreery 6 Whilst patriot names the lengthen'd death-rolls swell, For royal crimes one regal victim fell. 1858 27 Nov. 567/2 The yearly death roll from this cause in England and Wales is about fifty thousand strong. 1878 21 Sept. 624/2 Our death-roll, this month, contains, alas, so many names that we must dismiss each with the briefest mention. 1906 17 Oct. 10/1 The terrible disaster at Seaham in 1880, when the death-roll approximated to nearly 200. 1948 J. S. Furnivall viii. 302 The death roll in the coolie barracks of Rangoon is typical of the impoverishment which naturally results from the exposure of unskilled labour to the unmitigated action of economic forces. 2012 (Nexis) 31 Jan. 29 439 men were killed out of some 900-plus working below ground. Included in the death roll were five from the rugby club. society > authority > punishment > capital punishment > hanging > [noun] > gallows > parts of > noose or rope 1824 J. Symmons tr. Æschylus 101 Many a horrid death-rope swung! 1938 J. C. Powys xv. 369 The same appalling sense of the monstrously grotesque—Stavrogin's putting soap on his death-rope. 2011 E. Dolnick i. ix. 53 One of the hangman's perks was the right to auction off souvenirs. Death ropes sold in one-foot lengths. society > authority > punishment > imprisonment > prison > [noun] > cell > for those condemned to death 1894 12 Mar. 3 (heading) Thomas Jordan, who occupies a cell in the death row at Canon City Penitentiary. 1902 23 June Six men now occupy cells in ‘death row’ at the [Utah] penitentiary. 1954 21 Oct. 30 Living with the living dead on Death Row. 1967 M. Braly (1968) iv. 58 Condemned row, almost always called death row except in official documents, is buried deep in the center of the north block. 2005 D. R. Dow (title) Executed on a technicality: lethal injustice on America's death row. the world > life > death > [noun] > death throes > sound of 1815 W. Scott II. 89 That was the death ruckle—he's dead. 1885 Ld. Tennyson in 21 Nov. 248/1 Vows that will last to the last death-ruckle. 1928 May 87 And so, in his last death-ruckle, Villon is dead. 1841 28 Aug. 6/1 All silent but the death-ruttle in the throat. a1852 W. T. Spurdens (1858) III. at Ruttle ‘The death ruttle’ is the last expiration. 1901 J. Prior 28 I'd as lieve hear the death-ruttle. society > law > administration of justice > court proceedings or procedure > judging > sentencing > [noun] > sentence > death-sentence 1655 T. Stanley I. ii. v. 16 (heading) Of his triall, Death sentences and writings. 1788 (Medit. vii. 13–14) 48 They have heard my Lord Judge sum up the evidences against the trembling malefactor at the bar, and just a going, to denounce the death-sentence. 1822 5 222 Wrapped in an awful silence which was to be broken with a death-sentence to the hopes of the enamoured enthusiast. 1867 p. xvi In 1866, 3 males and 1 female received death sentences. 1911 A. J. Morrison tr. J. D. Schöpf I. 45 A strict law has been passed against the poor barberry, making the inhabitants responsible, with no further judicial process, for the carrying out of the death sentence imposed upon both varieties of this shrub. 1944 G. Myrdal I. xxvi. 554 (note) The death sentence for rape..is restricted almost wholly to the South and Southwest. 2001 18 May 6/3 Not paying for anti-retrovirals is a death sentence handed down by a company that is making huge profits. 2011 (National ed.) 31 Oct. a12/1 Mr. Perry was signing bills to create a life without parole alternative to the death sentence. 1820 Sept. 652/1 The death-sough o' the Morisons is as hollow as a groan frae the grave. 1905 E. A. Travis xix. 336 The wind following them up the dark pathway moaned the death-sough of departing souls as their betrothal. society > authority > punishment > capital punishment > [noun] > firing squad society > armed hostility > warriors collectively > paramilitary groups spec. > [noun] 1873 19 Apr. 3/2 The scene spoken of is carried through in the usual form of military executions—the prisoner being blindfolded and fired upon by a ‘death squad’ drawn up in a line a few paces off. 1951 B. B. Turkus & S. Feder vi. 135 Czar of the Brooklyn waterfront and boss of the Syndicate's newly added death squad. 1976 3 Oct. 8 The victims of the assassination schemes are for the most part political moderates, and there seems to be no geographical limit to the operations of the death squads. 2001 D. J. Whittaker (2002) xv. 235 A whole range of terrorist methods employed by both sides—death squads, demolition and burning of property, forced eviction, [etc.]. the world > physical sensation > sight and vision > a look or glance > [noun] > stare or gaze the world > physical sensation > sight and vision > a look or glance > [noun] > fierce or malevolent look 1818 H. B. Henderson 9 His eye-ball is fix'd in the death-stare of pain. 1892 T. De W. Talmage 328 Opposing forces would fight until their swords were broken, and then each one would throttle his man until they both fell, teeth to teeth, grip to grip, death-stare to death-stare. 1975 D. Ponicsan iv. viii. 290 Her head went back. Her eyes, half closed, flared wide open in a death stare at the ceiling. The executed always drool. 1988 P. Watkins ii. 49 We shook our heads madly and pointed at Breder. She smiled and Breder turned around to give us the Death Stare. 2008 28 Nov. a6/1 I don't get too upset when I am the recipient of the teenage death stare as I remind them that they are to avoid..texting. the world > life > the body > organs of excretion > excretions > perspirations > [noun] > sweat 1725 C. Morris 5 Apr. (1934) 117 My Dear Wife..from a Death Sweat grew in her Hands & Arms very cold. 1840 J. Neal 67/2 She sat, and the death sweat was upon her cold hand, while she pressed it against his forehead. 1905 14 Sept. 2/1 When the death-sweat beads his pallid face, when the breath comes quickly and strained. 2006 C. Frazier iv. iv. 323 His eyes lay black in his head and his skin was colorless as side meat and dewed with death sweat. society > trade and finance > fees and taxes > impost, due, or tax > tax > types of tax > [noun] > estate or inheritance taxes 1850 13 July 742/2 Is it not possible to work our coal mines effectively and economically, without incurring this dreadful death tax? 1880 11 Mar. 841 He hoped that the right hon. Gentleman would now give them some distinct reasons for the very considerable addition which he proposed to make in the 'death tax', on personal, to the exclusion of real, property. 1907 17 Feb. 12/1 We can easily imagine what a tremendous death tax this disease inflicts and demands. 1967 J. G. Davis xxxii. 304 I tried to sell him a policy to cover his death tax so his widow would pick up his estate intact. 2005 (National ed.) 14 Aug. iii. 4/1 Perhaps no other tax has so many passionate..opponents as the estate tax, or ‘death tax’, as they have branded it. the world > animals > invertebrates > phylum Arthropoda > class Insecta > [noun] > member of > defined by sound > that ticks the world > animals > invertebrates > phylum Arthropoda > class Insecta > order Coleoptera or beetles and weevils > [noun] > Polyphaga (omnivorous) > superfamily Diversicornia > family Anobiidae > xestobium rufovillosum (death-watch) the world > animals > invertebrates > phylum Arthropoda > class Insecta > order Coleoptera or beetles and weevils > [noun] > Polyphaga (omnivorous) > superfamily Diversicornia > family Anobiidae > member of genus Anobium 1853 H. Melville Cock-a-doodle-doo! in Dec. 81/1 I might as well have asked him if he had heard the death-tick. 1879 R. Jefferies 207 In the huge beams or woodwork, the death-tick is sure to be heard in the silence of the night. 1947 V. Randolph xiii. 302 The famous death watch or death tick..is supposed to mean a death in the building within a few days. 1864 28 148 These municipal reforms..were completed in 1854; and the death-toll has been levied with less severity ever since. 1916 21 July 1/2 The death toll from the floods now stands at from 80 to 90. 1965 28 May 42/2 In the last decade, emphysema's death toll has increased enormously, and the disease may claim 50,000 lives this year. 2001 Feb. 100/1 With the death toll rising among entertainment dot-coms... staking your survival on an Internet start-up seems risky. 2010 C. Wolmar viii. 221 In the immediate aftermath of the disaster, 424 bodies were found, but the best estimate of the final death toll is 675. the world > physical sensation > physical sensibility > physical insensibility > hypnotic state > [noun] 1822 L. H. Sigourney i. 27 Thou didst faintly gleam Upon the eye of Jacob, as he lay In his death-trance. 1849 H. Mayo ii. 34 The basis of death-trance is suspension of the action of the heart, and of the breathing, and of voluntary motion. 1905 L. W. de Laurence ix. 178 This death trance or comatose state can be induced by voluntary effort or Auto-Suggestion. 2001 J. Bondeson (2002) v. 99 Upon awakening from his death trance, the individual could easily smash his way out of the coffin. the world > action or operation > harm or detriment > danger > [noun] > instance or cause of > hidden 1828 I. v. 191 The death trap [sc. a spider's web] has its prey. 1835 R. Browning v. 167 This murky loathsome Death-trap—this slaughter-house. 1889 14 Dec. 830 If..the Board schools are death-traps. 1943 A. C. Seward vi. 82 Many birds that alighted on the unsuspected death-traps..were themselves entangled. 2008 26 Feb. 33/1 People would still be driving death-traps without seat belts or airbags. the world > the earth > water > flow or flowing > wave > types of waves > [noun] > unusually large 1832 G. Griffin II. xxvii. 127 ‘To the shore,’ he shouted aloud, and waved his hand as he approached. ‘To the shore, at once, for your lives! It is the Death-Wave!’ 1848 C. A. Johns 103 About one in every nine is more boisterous..than the rest: this the fishermen call ‘the death wave’. 1886 J. Milne 171 Phenomena..on the Wexford coast..popularly known as ‘death waves’, probably in consequence of the lives which have been lost by these sudden inundations. 1995 July 333/3 Reports refer to them as meteorological tsunamis in Japan, death waves in Ireland,..seebärs in the Baltic. 1832 Nov. 104/2 With..a quivering hand, I pressed The death-weights on those orbs of thought, And bore thee to thy rest. 1850 E. B. Browning v. iv–v They laid the death-weights on mine eyes. 1899 1 Apr. 3/2 They laid him in a sepulchre With death-weights on his eyes. 2001 M. Gilchrist (2002) Prol. 11 I saved the Spanish milled coins until the moment the soldiers put him into the box, and that was the worst of it; placing death weights on his beautiful eyes. C3. In the genitive. See also death's head n., death's herb n., death's ring n., etc. OE Wærferð tr. Gregory (Corpus Cambr.) (1900) ii. iii. 105 Þa ongæt se Godes wer, þæt þæt fæt hæfde deaþes drync on him. c1175 (Burchfield transcript) l. 1374 Þær cristess mennisscnesse. Drannc dæþess drinnch. a1325 (c1250) (1968) l. 3396 Get sal ðe kinde of amalech Ben al fled dun in deades wrech. a1400 (a1325) (Vesp.) l. 27732 Thrett, buffett, and dedes dint..Þir ar þe springes o wreth. a1586 Sir P. Sidney Certaine Sonets in (1598) sig. Rr4 This song from deathes sorrow springeth. a1616 W. Shakespeare (1623) iii. iii. 6 Where death's approach is seene so terrible. View more context for this quotation 1652 E. Benlowes xiii. cxii. 250 Death's one long Sleep. a1732 T. Boston (1775) v. 278 In your..wrestling with temptations, have ye not sometimes looked wistly for death's relief? 1792 R. Burns in 2 July 3/3 When Death's dark stream I ferry o'er. a1847 H. F. Lyte (1850) 121 Where is death's sting? where, grave, thy victory? 1881 R. Buchanan III. 244 After death's asundering. 1955 (Y.W.C.A.) viii. 83 Death's sorrow is sacred, and man has surrounded it with certain solemn ceremonies. 2008 A.-M. Sutton xiv. 97 She recognized death's grief and heartbreak in the blank faces of Dennis Montgomery's parents. OE Wærferð tr. Gregory (Corpus Cambr.) (1900) iv. xx. 291 Þa þa þysne halgan wer nydde se deaþes dæg to ðam utgange of lichaman, manige men hi gesomnodon. c1225 (?c1200) (Bodl.) (1940) 225 Þet dreori dede..ȝeueð þet deaðes dunt. ?c1422 T. Hoccleve Ars Sciendi Mori l. 538 in (1970) i. 198 Thogh thow seeke in thy bed now lye, Be nat agast, no dethes euel haast thow. 1567 J. Maplet f. 29 When as he..lay vpon his deathes bed. 1597 W. Warner (new ed.) viii. xliii. 205 His Vnkindnes in her Deaths-Scene. 1600 sig. Z.2v Thirsis the Sheepheard his deaths song. 1605 J. Sylvester tr. G. de S. Du Bartas ii. i. 330 But, since his sinne, the woefull wretch findes none..Beast, mountaine, valley, sea-gate, shoare or hauen, But beares his Deaths-doombe openly ingrauen. 1616 T. Scot sig. A4 He hunts for our destruction cheeres the hound.., Rings our shrill deaths bell with so fearefull blast, As charmes our ioynts to heare. 1621 M. Wroth 394 No new act of his in this change presents it selfe, but giues a deaths blow to our ancient loues. 1640 tr. J. A. Comenius (new ed.) xcvii. §964 Keeping a deaths-day as well as a birth-day. 1726 A. Smith 245 He knew no more what it was than of his Death's-Day. 1759 Choir Litany i. 33 in Brought thee forth in his Death's Throes. 1762 VII. 21 He was seized suddenly with his death's stroke, on the 15th of October, 1708. 1823 W. Scott II. iii. 55 It was your gift, and that should, I own, have been enough to have made me keep to my death's day the poorest rag of it. 1900 J. M. Miller xxvi. 439 Day and night, without rest,..the unfortunate missionary lay in the death's house. 1956 J. Besharov iv. 78 The living strings (swans)..emit not a death's song but a pean. 2009 J. R. Millichap i. 25 His father's cold sweat on his death's bed. c. the world > life > death > [noun] > point of the world > life > death > [adverb] > towards death OE (1932) cvi. 17 Hi onhysctan æghwylcne mete..oð unmihte, þæt hy wið deaða duru [L. ad portas mortis] drencyde wæran.] 1515 A. Barclay tr. B. Spagnuoli (1955) viii. 41 This wofull virgyne, complayned all alone As she that was, at dethes dore or brynke. 1550 M. Coverdale tr. O. Werdmueller xviii. sig. Gviijv To brynge vnto deaths dore, that he maye restore vnto lyfe agayne. 1646 P. Bulkley To Rdr. 1 When death comes to our dores, and we are at deaths-dore. 1743 4 June Children have Safely Cut their Teeth, and Done extremely Well, tho' at Death's Door Before. 1817 C. Cuthbertson I. vii. 136 Whin [sic] his puny cousin dies, which he will, being more than half entered death's door already, his will be an elegant fortune. 1861 A. Trollope III. xii. 214 Poor Mrs. Crawley had been at death's door. 1913 22 Feb. 42/3 A poor fellow in the mills whose wife is dead and his two children are at death's door. 1955 S. Milligan (1973) 137 I'll have you know that I've been very ill. In fact I was at death's door twice. 1995 L. Garrett (new ed.) xii. 394 Though she eventually survived, the teenager was at death's door for eight days. the world > life > death > [noun] > point of OE ix. 15 Qui exaltas me de portis mortis : þu þe upahefest me æt deaðes geate. ?1567 M. Parker xliv. 131 Our soule to dust: is brought downe, euen iust at deathes gate. 1659 S. Rutherford Let. 12 Sept. in (1765) 425 Though I was lately knocking at death's gate, yet could I not get in, but was sent back for a time. 1751 July 328/1 He's only safe. Who thro' death's gate has pass'd. 1834 W. B. Chorley tr. K. T. Körner 90 In dying, Still Heavenward, as on victory, rests thy view; For Freedom through death's gate must thou pursue! 1921 L. L. Rice 24 Together at Death's gate adieu to men Regretful bid. 2006 N. Galland ii. vii. 388 You aren't recovered at all, you're at death's gate. c1300 (?c1225) (Cambr.) (1901) l. 640 (MED) Ismot hem alle to grunde Oþer ȝaf hem diþes wunde. a1400 (a1325) (Gött.) l. 7592 Mani fledd wid dedes wound [Fairf. deþes wounde]. 1480 (Caxton) ccxliii. sig. t3 There he caught deths wounde. c1540 J. Bellenden tr. H. Boece xvi. vii. f. 205v/1 Ane deidis wound in his heid. 1579 T. Churchyard sig. Hiv The cheef Capitaine Manneryng had his deathes wounde, and fell doune in the dike before the gate. 1602 J. Davidson in C. Rogers (1874) 154 Hee gets sik a deads wound that..he is never able to overcome. 1667 J. Milton iii. 252 Death his deaths wound shall then receive. View more context for this quotation 1761 L. Scrafton ii. 46 Mustapha Caun..received his death's wound from an arrow. 1814 J. Hogg iv. ii. 102 One gave him his death's wound: He'll ne'er return. 1906 C. M. Doughty III. xi. 143 On him, who reels, of Romans, with death's wound..A mad priest seizing, slays, with altar-knife. 1986 P. Dean xiv. 146 He is not living man, he hath had his death's wound. This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, March 2014; most recently modified version published online June 2022). deathadj.1 Origin: A variant or alteration of another lexical item. Etymon: deaf adj. Etymology: Variant of deaf adj., apparently with /f/ heard or understood as /θ/. Compare earlier death v. and later death adder n. English regional (chiefly south-eastern) in later use. Now rare. the world > health and disease > ill health > a disease > disorders of ear > disordered hearing > [adjective] > deaf c1475 (Folger) (1969) l. 523 Resone I haue made both dethe [Eccles corrects to deff; ?c1500 Digby deff] and dumme. a1500 St. Katherine (Cambr. Ff.2.38) l. 436 in C. Horstmann (1881) 2nd. Ser. 264 There ys made hole dethe & dombe. 1574 E. Hellowes tr. A. de Guevara 116 As he was death and most dunch, I cried out more in speaking vnto him, than I do vse in preaching. c1736 S. Pegge (1876) Death, deaf. a1821 J. W. Masters Dick & Sal at Canterbury Fair in W. D. Parish & W. F. Shaw (1887) p. xix De ooman was sa plaguey death, She cou'den mak' ar hear. 1862 C. C. Robinson 281 An dēath an' dumb lad. 1887 W. D. Parish & W. F. Shaw 41 It's a gurt denial to be so werry death. 1895 G. Leveson-Gower Dial. Surrey in G. Clinch & S. W. Kershaw 54 Certain words are invariably mispronounced... Death for deaf. This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, March 2014; most recently modified version published online March 2022). deathadj.2 Origin: Apparently formed within English, by conversion. Etymon: death n. Etymology: Apparently an extended sense of death n.; compare to be death on at death n. Phrases 14 and quot. 1965). Compare def adj., and with the sense development also murder n.1 5b, killer n. 7.See further discussion of quot. 1979 at def adj. U.S. slang (esp. in African-American usage). Now rare and chiefly historical. the mind > goodness and badness > quality of being good > excellence > [adjective] 1965 W. King in 309 This doll is a champ on the sheets! She is brutal; death on sheets, man!] 1979 G. O'Brien et al. (song, perf. ‘Sugarhill Gang’) Someone get a fly girl, gonna get some spank and drive off in a death O.J. 1981 W. Safire in 18 Jan. 6/3 Deaf [sic]—a mispronunciation of ‘death’—is the current superlative. (In topsyturvytalk, death is the liveliest and baad-baaader-baaadest is the equivalent of ‘good-better-best’.) 1983 E. L. Sturz 35 ‘But this looks like a death little workshop to me, run by..cool people.’ (‘Death’ is a term of high praise in the South Bronx). 2001 R. Simmons & N. George vi. 79 He [sc. Rick Rubin] really thought when rappers said ‘death’ (which in the '80s was a slang term of affirmation) that they were saying ‘def’. This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, March 2014; most recently modified version published online March 2022). † deathv.Origin: A variant or alteration of another lexical item. Etymons: deave v., deaf v. Etymology: Variant of either deave v. or deaf v., apparently with /v/ or /f/ heard or understood as /ð/ or /θ/. Compare death adj.1 Obsolete. rare. the world > health and disease > ill health > a disease > disorders of ear > disordered hearing > have a hearing disorder [verb (transitive)] > make deaf a1450 (1885) 298 Lo! sirs, he dethis vs with dynne! This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, March 2014; most recently modified version published online December 2021). <  n.eOE adj.1c1475 adj.21979 v.a1450 |
