death

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.
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2. Total privation or loss; extinction; cessation; as, the death of memory.
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The death of a language can not be exactly compared with the death of a plant. --J. Peile.
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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.
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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.
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5. Personified: The destroyer of life, -- conventionally represented as a skeleton with a scythe.
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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.
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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.
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9. Anything so dreadful as to be like death. [1913 Webster]

It was death to them to think of entertaining such doctrines. --Atterbury.
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And urged him, so that his soul was vexed unto death. --Judg. xvi.
16.
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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.
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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"ol.) (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.
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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.
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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.
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Source: The Collaborative International Dictionary of English