death
NounWordNet 3.0
Noun (8)
- the event of dying or departure from life“her death came as a terrible shock”“upon your decease the capital will pass to your grandchildren”Synonyms: deceaseexpiry
- the permanent end of all life functions in an organism or part of an organism“the animal died a painful death”
- the absence of life or state of being dead“he seemed more content in death than he had ever been in life”
- the time when something ends“it was the death of all his plans”“a dying of old hopes”Synonyms: dyingdemise
- the time at which life ends; continuing until dead“she stayed until his death”“a struggle to the last”Synonyms: last
- the personification of death“Death walked the streets of the plague-bound city”Synonyms: Death
- a final state“he came to a bad end”“the so-called glorious experiment came to an inglorious end”Synonyms: enddestruction
- the act of killing“he had two deaths on his conscience”
Webster's Dictionary (GCIDE)
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]