DEATH
death
(noun) the act of killing; “he had two deaths on his conscience”
death, decease, expiry
(noun) 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”
Death
(noun) the personification of death; “Death walked the streets of the plague-bound city”
death
(noun) the permanent end of all life functions in an organism or part of an organism; “the animal died a painful death”
death
(noun) the absence of life or state of being dead; “he seemed more content in death than he had ever been in life”
end, destruction, death
(noun) a final state; “he came to a bad end”; “the so-called glorious experiment came to an inglorious end”
death, last
(noun) the time at which life ends; continuing until dead; “she stayed until his death”; “a struggle to the last”
death, dying, demise
(noun) the time when something ends; “it was the death of all his plans”; “a dying of old hopes”
Source: WordNet® 3.1
Proper noun
Death
The personification of death, often a skeleton with a scythe, and one of the four horsemen of the apocalypse.
Synonyms: the angel of death, Azrael, the Grim Reaper, the reaper, the pale rider, the rider, psychopomp, Santa Muerte, the Shinigami
Coordinate terms
• Chronos
• Father Time
Anagrams
• Theda, hated
Etymology
Noun
death (countable and uncountable, plural deaths)
The cessation of life and all associated processes; the end of an organism's existence as an entity independent from its environment and its return to an inert, nonliving state.
(often, capitalized) The personification of death as a hooded figure with a scythe; the Grim Reaper. The pronoun he is not the only option, but probably the most traditional one, as it matches with the male grammatical gender of Old English dēaþ, also with cognate German der Tod. The fourth apocalyptic rider (Bible, revelations 6:8) is male θᾰ́νᾰτος (thanatos) in Greek. It has the female name Mors in Latin, but is referred to with male forms qui and eum. The following quotes show this rider on a pale horse is his in the English Bible and she in Peter Gabriel's lyrics.
(the death) The collapse or end of something.
(figuratively, esp. followed by of-phrase) A cause of great stress, exhaustion, embarrassment, or another negative condition (for someone).
(figurative) Spiritual lifelessness.
Synonyms
• See also death
Anagrams
• Theda, hated
Source: Wiktionary
Death, n. Etym: [OE. deth, dea, AS. deá; akin to OS. d, D. dood, G.
tod, Icel. dau, Sw. & Dan. död, Goth. daupus; 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.
Note: Local death is going on at 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.
2. Total privation or loss; extinction; cessation; as, the death of
memory.
The death of a language can not be exactly compared with the death of
a plant. J. Peile.
3. Manner of dying; act or state of passing from life.
A death that I abhor. Shak.
Let me die the death of the righteous. Num. xxiii. 10.
4. Cause of loss of life.
Swiftly flies the feathered death. Dryden.
He caught his death the last county sessions. Addison.
5. Personified: The destroyer of life, -- conventionally represented
as a skeleton with a scythe.
Death! great proprietor of all. Young.
And I looked, and behold a pale horse; and his name that at on him
was Death. Rev. vi. 8.
6. Danger of death. "In deaths oft." 2 Cor. xi. 23.
7. Murder; murderous character.
Not to suffer a man of death to live. Bacon.
8. (Theol.)
Definition: Loss of spiritual life.
To be death. Rom. viii. 6.
9. Anything so dreadful as to be like death.
It was death to them to think of entertaining such doctrines.
Atterbury.
And urged him, so that his soul was vexed unto death. Judg. xvi. 16.
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. 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. (Zoöl.) (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 Elapidæ, of several
species, as the Hoplocephalus superbus and Acanthopis antarctica.
– Death bell, a bell that announces a death.
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.
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 knell, a stroke or tolling of a bell, announcing a death.
– Death rate, the relation or ratio of the number of deaths to the
population.
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.
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, Decrase, Departure, Release. 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.
Source: Webster’s Unabridged Dictionary 1913 Edition