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.
      [1913 Webster]

   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.
         [1913 Webster]

   2. Total privation or loss; extinction; cessation; as, the
      death of memory.
      [1913 Webster]

            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.
      [1913 Webster]

            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.
      [1913 Webster]

            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.
      [1913 Webster]

            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.
         [1913 Webster]

   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.
      [1913 Webster]

            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.
      [1913 Webster]

            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.
      [1913 Webster]

            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.
      [1913 Webster]

            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.
          [1913 Webster]

The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48:

Black death \Black" death`\
   A pestilence which ravaged Europe and Asia in the fourteenth
   century.
   [1913 Webster]

The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48:

Bubonic plague \Bubonic plague\ (Med.)
   a severe and often fatal disease caused by infection with the
   bacterium Yersinia pestis (formerly Pasteurella pestis),
   transmitted to man by the bite of fleas, themselves usually
   infected by biting infected rodents. It is characterized by
   the formation of buboes, most notably on the groin and
   armpits, and accompanied by weakness and high fever. The
   disease was known as the black death, and was responsible
   for several devastating plagues throughout the middle ages.
   When lungs became infected, the disease was called the
   pneumonic plague. It is still found occasionally in poor
   areas of undeveloped countries but is rare in developed
   countries.
   [PJC]

WordNet (r) 3.0 (2006):

Black Death
    n 1: the epidemic form of bubonic plague experienced during the
         Middle Ages when it killed nearly half the people of
         western Europe [syn: Black Death, Black Plague]

Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0:

151 Moby Thesaurus words for "black death":
   African lethargy, Asiatic cholera, Chagres fever, German measles,
   Haverhill fever, acute articular rheumatism, ague, alkali disease,
   ambulatory plague, amebiasis, amebic dysentery, anthrax,
   bacillary dysentery, bastard measles, black fever, black plague,
   blackwater fever, breakbone fever, brucellosis, bubonic plague,
   cachectic fever, cellulocutaneous plague, cerebral rheumatism,
   chicken pox, cholera, cowpox, dandy fever, deer fly fever,
   defervescing plague, dengue, dengue fever, diphtheria,
   dumdum fever, dysentery, elephantiasis, encephalitis lethargica,
   enteric fever, epidemic, epiphytotic, epizootic, erysipelas,
   famine fever, five-day fever, flu, frambesia, glandular fever,
   glandular plague, grippe, hansenosis, hemorrhagic plague,
   hepatitis, herpes, herpes simplex, herpes zoster, histoplasmosis,
   hookworm, hydrophobia, infantile paralysis,
   infectious mononucleosis, inflammatory rheumatism, influenza,
   jail fever, jungle rot, kala azar, kissing disease, larval plague,
   lepra, leprosy, leptospirosis, loa loa, loaiasis, lockjaw, madness,
   malaria, malarial fever, marsh fever, measles, meningitis,
   milzbrand, mumps, murrain, ornithosis, osteomyelitis, pandemia,
   pandemic, paratyphoid fever, parotitis, parrot fever, pertussis,
   pest, pesthole, pestilence, plague, plague spot, pneumonia,
   pneumonic plague, polio, poliomyelitis, polyarthritis rheumatism,
   ponos, premonitory plague, psittacosis, rabbit fever, rabies,
   rat-bite fever, relapsing fever, rheumatic fever, rickettsialpox,
   ringworm, rubella, rubeola, scarlatina, scarlet fever,
   schistosomiasis, scourge, septic sore throat, septicemic plague,
   shingles, siderating plague, sleeping sickness, sleepy sickness,
   smallpox, snail fever, splenic fever, spotted fever, strep throat,
   swamp fever, tetanus, thrush, tinea, trench fever, trench mouth,
   tuberculosis, tularemia, typhoid, typhoid fever, typhus,
   typhus fever, undulant fever, vaccinia, varicella, variola,
   venereal disease, viral dysentery, white plague, whooping cough,
   yaws, yellow fever, yellow jack, zona, zoster