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.
Let me die the death of the righteous. --Num. xxiii.
10.
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.