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Definitions for: Death
[n] the act of killing; "he had two deaths on his conscience"
[n] 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"
[n] the personification of death; "Death walked the streets of the plague-bound city"
[n] the permanent end of all life functions in an organism or part of an organism; "the animal died a painful death"
[n] the absence of life or state of being dead; "he seemed more content in death than he had ever been in life"
[n] a final state; "he came to a bad end"; "the so-called glorious experiment came to an inglorious end"
[n] the time at which life ends; continuing until dead; "she stayed until his death"; "a struggle to the last"
[n] the time when something ends; "it was the death of all his plans"; "a dying of old hopes"
Webster (1913) Definition: Death, n. [OE. deth, dea?, AS. de['a]?; akin to OS. d??,
D. dood, G. tod, Icel. dau?i, Sw. & Dan. d["o]d, 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.) Loss of spiritual life.
To be ??????? m????? is 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. (Zo["o]l.)
(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.
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, 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.
Synonyms: decease, demise, destruction, dying, end, last
Antonyms: birth, birth, nascence, nascency, nativity
See Also: alteration, brain death, cell death, cerebral death, change, cot death, crib death, Crucifixion, defunctness, departure, end, ending, eternal rest, eternal sleep, exit, expiration, extinction, fatality, gangrene, going, grave, grim reaper, human death, imaginary being, imaginary creature, infant death, kill, killing, life, lifespan, lifetime, loss, martyrdom, megadeath, modification, mortification, necrobiosis, necrosis, neonatal death, organic phenomenon, passing, putting to death, quietus, reaper, release, rest, SIDS, sleep, sphacelus, state, sudden infant death syndrome
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