from
The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48
Death \Death\ (d[e^]th), n. [OE. deth, dea[eth], AS.
de['a][eth]; akin to OS. d[=o][eth], D. dood, G. tod, Icel.
dau[eth]i, Sw. & Dan. d["o]d, Goth. dau[thorn]us; from a verb
meaning to die. See {Die}, v. i., and cf. {Dead}.]
1. The cessation of all vital phenomena without capability of
resuscitation, either in animals or plants.
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Note: Local death is going on at all times and in all parts
of the living body, in which individual cells and
elements are being cast off and replaced by new; a
process essential to life. General death is of two
kinds; death of the body as a whole (somatic or
systemic death), and death of the tissues. By the
former is implied the absolute cessation of the
functions of the brain, the circulatory and the
respiratory organs; by the latter the entire
disappearance of the vital actions of the ultimate
structural constituents of the body. When death takes
place, the body as a whole dies first, the death of the
tissues sometimes not occurring until after a
considerable interval. --Huxley.
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2. Total privation or loss; extinction; cessation; as, the
death of memory.
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The death of a language can not be exactly compared
with the death of a plant. --J. Peile.
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3. Manner of dying; act or state of passing from life.
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A death that I abhor. --Shak.
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Let me die the death of the righteous. --Num. xxiii.
10.
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4. Cause of loss of life.
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Swiftly flies the feathered death. --Dryden.
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He caught his death the last county sessions.
--Addison.
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5. Personified: The destroyer of life, -- conventionally
represented as a skeleton with a scythe.
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Death! great proprietor of all. --Young.
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And I looked, and behold a pale horse; and his name
that sat on him was Death. --Rev. vi. 8.
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6. Danger of death. "In deaths oft." --2 Cor. xi. 23.
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7. Murder; murderous character.
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Not to suffer a man of death to live. --Bacon.
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8. (Theol.) Loss of spiritual life.
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To be carnally minded is death. --Rom. viii.
6.
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9. Anything so dreadful as to be like death.
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It was death to them to think of entertaining such
doctrines. --Atterbury.
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And urged him, so that his soul was vexed unto
death. --Judg. xvi.
16.
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Note: Death is much used adjectively and as the first part of
a compound, meaning, in general, of or pertaining to
death, causing or presaging death; as, deathbed or
death bed; deathblow or death blow, etc.
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{Black death}. See {Black death}, in the Vocabulary.
{Civil death}, the separation of a man from civil society, or
the debarring him from the enjoyment of civil rights, as
by banishment, attainder, abjuration of the realm,
entering a monastery, etc. --Blackstone.
{Death adder}. (Zool.)
(a) A kind of viper found in South Africa ({Acanthophis
tortor}); -- so called from the virulence of its
venom.
(b) A venomous Australian snake of the family
{Elapid[ae]}, of several species, as the
{Hoplocephalus superbus} and {Acanthopis antarctica}.
{Death bell}, a bell that announces a death.
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The death bell thrice was heard to ring. --Mickle.
{Death candle}, a light like that of a candle, viewed by the
superstitious as presaging death.
{Death damp}, a cold sweat at the coming on of death.
{Death fire}, a kind of ignis fatuus supposed to forebode
death.
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And round about in reel and rout,
The death fires danced at night. --Coleridge.
{Death grapple}, a grapple or struggle for life.
{Death in life}, a condition but little removed from death; a
living death. [Poetic] "Lay lingering out a five years'
death in life." --Tennyson.
{Death rate}, the relation or ratio of the number of deaths
to the population.
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At all ages the death rate is higher in towns than
in rural districts. --Darwin.
{Death rattle}, a rattling or gurgling in the throat of a
dying person.
{Death's door}, the boundary of life; the partition dividing
life from death.
{Death stroke}, a stroke causing death.
{Death throe}, the spasm of death.
{Death token}, the signal of approaching death.
{Death warrant}.
(a) (Law) An order from the proper authority for the
execution of a criminal.
(b) That which puts an end to expectation, hope, or joy.
{Death wound}.
(a) A fatal wound or injury.
(b) (Naut.) The springing of a fatal leak.
{Spiritual death} (Scripture), the corruption and perversion
of the soul by sin, with the loss of the favor of God.
{The gates of death}, the grave.
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Have the gates of death been opened unto thee? --Job
xxxviii. 17.
{The second death}, condemnation to eternal separation from
God. --Rev. ii. 11.
{To be the death of}, to be the cause of death to; to make
die. "It was one who should be the death of both his
parents." --Milton.
Syn: {Death}, {Decease}, {Demise}, {Departure}, {Release}.
Usage: Death applies to the termination of every form of
existence, both animal and vegetable; the other words
only to the human race. Decease is the term used in
law for the removal of a human being out of life in
the ordinary course of nature. Demise was formerly
confined to decease of princes, but is now sometimes
used of distinguished men in general; as, the demise
of Mr. Pitt. Departure and release are peculiarly
terms of Christian affection and hope. A violent death
is not usually called a decease. Departure implies a
friendly taking leave of life. Release implies a
deliverance from a life of suffering or sorrow.
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