to be (a person's) death, to be the death of: to cause (a person's) death, to kill. In later use often hyperbolical or humorous, describing a…

Of natural forces, accidents, etc.

transitive. To deprive forcibly or rob (a person or place) of something. Also figurative. Cf. bereave, v. 1. Now literary and archaic.

To release from life; to cause the dissolution or death of; usually in passive to die, depart. Obsolete.

To inflict hurt, harm, or punishment upon (a person); to deal severely or hardly with (persons or things); †to cut off, cause to die.

transferred and figurative. To quench (hopes, passions, strife, life, mental faculties, etc.); to silence (sound).

To extinguish (a person's rage) by suffering it to the full; to end (one's sorrows, a suffering life) by death. Obsolete.

transitive. To cause (a person) to die; to kill (a person).

transitive. Esp. of an illness: to cause (a person) to die; to kill (a person); to be the death of.

transitive. To render lifeless, devitalize.

slang (originally Military and Navy). to lose the number of one's mess: to die, to be killed. So to settle the number of a person's mess: to cause a…