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.
      [1913 Webster]

   3. Manner of dying; act or state of passing from life.
      [1913 Webster]

            A death that I abhor.                 --Shak.
      [1913 Webster]

            Let me die the death of the righteous. --Num. xxiii.
                                                  10.
      [1913 Webster]

   4. Cause of loss of life.
      [1913 Webster]

            Swiftly flies the feathered death.    --Dryden.
      [1913 Webster]

            He caught his death the last county sessions.
                                                  --Addison.
      [1913 Webster]

   5. Personified: The destroyer of life, -- conventionally
      represented as a skeleton with a scythe.
      [1913 Webster]

            Death! great proprietor of all.       --Young.
      [1913 Webster]

            And I looked, and behold a pale horse; and his name
            that sat on him was Death.            --Rev. vi. 8.
      [1913 Webster]

   6. Danger of death. "In deaths oft." --2 Cor. xi. 23.
      [1913 Webster]

   7. Murder; murderous character.
      [1913 Webster]

            Not to suffer a man of death to live. --Bacon.
      [1913 Webster]

   8. (Theol.) Loss of spiritual life.
      [1913 Webster]

            To be carnally minded is death.       --Rom. viii.
                                                  6.
      [1913 Webster]

   9. Anything so dreadful as to be like death.
      [1913 Webster]

            It was death to them to think of entertaining such
            doctrines.                            --Atterbury.
      [1913 Webster]

            And urged him, so that his soul was vexed unto
            death.                                --Judg. xvi.
                                                  16.
      [1913 Webster]

   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:

Civil \Civ"il\, a. [L. civilis, fr. civis citizen: cf. F. civil.
   See City.]
   1. Pertaining to a city or state, or to a citizen in his
      relations to his fellow citizens or to the state; within
      the city or state.
      [1913 Webster]

   2. Subject to government; reduced to order; civilized; not
      barbarous; -- said of the community.
      [1913 Webster]

            England was very rude and barbarous; for it is but
            even the other day since England grew civil.
                                                  --Spenser.
      [1913 Webster]

   3. Performing the duties of a citizen; obedient to
      government; -- said of an individual.
      [1913 Webster]

            Civil men come nearer the saints of God than others;
            they come within a step or two of heaven. --Preston
      [1913 Webster]

   4. Having the manners of one dwelling in a city, as opposed
      to those of savages or rustics; polite; courteous;
      complaisant; affable.
      [1913 Webster]

   Note: "A civil man now is one observant of slight external
         courtesies in the mutual intercourse between man and
         man; a civil man once was one who fulfilled all the
         duties and obligations flowing from his position as a
         'civis' and his relations to the other members of that
         'civitas.'" --Trench
         [1913 Webster]

   5. Pertaining to civic life and affairs, in distinction from
      military, ecclesiastical, or official state.
      [1913 Webster]

   6. Relating to rights and remedies sought by action or suit
      distinct from criminal proceedings.
      [1913 Webster]

   Civil action, an action to enforce the rights or redress
      the wrongs of an individual, not involving a criminal
      proceeding.

   Civil architecture, the architecture which is employed in
      constructing buildings for the purposes of civil life, in
      distinction from military and naval architecture, as
      private houses, palaces, churches, etc.

   Civil death. (Law.) See under Death.

   Civil engineering. See under Engineering.

   Civil law. See under Law.

   Civil list. See under List.

   Civil remedy (Law), that given to a person injured, by
      action, as opposed to a criminal prosecution.

   Civil service, all service rendered to and paid for by the
      state or nation other than that pertaining to naval or
      military affairs.

   Civil service reform, the substitution of business
      principles and methods for the spoils system in the
      conduct of the civil service, esp. in the matter of
      appointments to office.

   Civil state, the whole body of the laity or citizens not
      included under the military, maritime, and ecclesiastical
      states.

   Civil suit. Same as Civil action.

   Civil war. See under War.

   Civil year. See under Year.
      [1913 Webster]

WordNet (r) 3.0 (2006):

civil death
    n 1: the legal status of a person who is alive but who has been
         deprived of the rights and privileges of a citizen or a
         member of society; the legal status of one sentenced to
         life imprisonment
    2: cancellation of civil rights [syn: attainder, civil
       death]

Bouvier's Law Dictionary, Revised 6th Ed (1856):

CIVIL DEATH, persons. The change of the state (q.v.) of a person who is
declared civilly dead by judgment of a competent tribunal. In such case, the
person against whom such sentence is pronounced is considered dead. 2 John.
R. 218. See Gilb. Uses, 150; 2 Bulst. 188; Co. tit. 132; Jenk. Cent. 250; 1
Keble, 398; Prest. on Convey. 140. Vide Death, civil.