Found 1 items, similar to Death rattle.
English → English (gcide) Definition: Death rattle Death \Death\ (d[e^]th), n. [OE. deth, dea[eth], AS. de['a][eth]; akin to OS. d[=o][eth], D. dood, G. tod, Icel. dau[eth]i, Sw. & Dan. d["o]d, Goth. dau[thorn]us; 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. [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. (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. [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]