Death

Death, deth, n. state of being dead: extinction or cessation of life: manner of dying: mortality: a deadly plague: cause of death: spiritual lifelessness: the killing of the animal in hunting.—ns. Death′-add′er, a poisonous Australian snake; Death′-ag′ony, the struggle often preceding death; Death′-bed, the bed on which one dies, the last illness; Death′-bell, the passing bell; Death′-blow, a blow that causes death; Death′-damp, a cold, clammy sweat preceding death.—n.pl. Death′-dū′ties, duties paid to government on the inheritance of property, real or personal, after the death of the former owner.—n. Death′-fire, a kind of light supposed to presage death.—adjs. Death′ful, Death′ly, deadly, destructive; Death′less, never dying: everlasting.—n. Death′lessness.—adj. Death′-like (Shak.), like a dead person, deadly.—n. Death′liness.—adj. Death′-marked, marked for or by death, destined to die.—n. Death′-mask, a plaster-cast taken from the face after death.—adj. Death′-prac′tised (Shak.), threatened with death by malicious arts.—ns. Death′-rate, the proportion of deaths to the population; Death′-ratt′le, a rattling in the throat which sometimes accompanies the last uneasy breathings of a dying person; Death's′-door, the point of death; Death's′-head, the skull of a human skeleton, or a figure of it; Death's′-man (Shak.), the public executioner; Death′-stroke, a death-blow; Death′-throe, the dying agony; Death′-tō′ken (Shak.), a sign or token of impending death, a plague-spot; Death′-trap, an unsafe building, vessel, or place that shuts up its occupants to almost certain death; Death′-warr′ant, an order from the authorities for the execution of a criminal; Death′-watch, a watch by a dying person: a popular name for several insects which produce a ticking noise, specially audible in the stillness of a death-chamber; Death′-wound, a wound which caused death.—Death's′-head moth, a species of hawk-moth, having pale markings on the back of the thorax somewhat like a skull.—Be death on, to be fond of, to be good at; Be in at the death, in hunting, to be up on the animal before the dogs have killed it.—Do, or Put, to death, to kill: to cause to be killed.—Gates, or Jaws, of death, death's door, the point of death.—To death, expressive of intensity, very much. [A.S. deáth; Ger. tod. See Dead and Die.]