Part 2786

<p><b>5.</b> <def>Personified: The destroyer of life, -- conventionally represented as a skeleton with a scythe.</def>

<blockquote><b>Death</b>! great proprietor of all. <i>Young.</i></blockquote>

<blockquote>And I looked, and behold a pale horse; and his name that at on him was <b>Death</b>. <i>Rev. vi. 8.</i></blockquote>

<p><b>6.</b> <def>Danger of death.</def> "In <i>deaths</i> oft."

<i>2 Cor. xi. 23.</i>

<p><b>7.</b> <def>Murder; murderous character.</def>

<blockquote>Not to suffer a man of <b>death</b> to live. <i>Bacon.</i></blockquote>

<p><b>8.</b> <fld>(Theol.)</fld> <def>Loss of spiritual life.</def>

<blockquote>To be <?/<?/<?/<?/<?/<?/<?/ m<?/<?/<?/<?/<?/ is <b>death</b>. <i>Rom. viii. 6.</i></blockquote>

<p><b>9.</b> <def>Anything so dreadful as to be like death.</def>

<blockquote>It was <b>death</b> to them to think of entertaining such doctrines. <i>Atterbury.</i></blockquote>

<blockquote>And urged him, so that his soul was vexed unto <b>death</b>. <i>Judg. xvi. 16.</i></blockquote>

<note>&hand; <i>Death</i> is much used adjectively and as the first part of a compound, meaning, in general, <i>of</i> or <i>pertaining to death</i>, <i>causing</i> or <i>presaging death</i>; as, <i>death</i>bed or <i>death</i> bed; <i>death</i>blow or <i>death</i> blow, etc.</note>

<cs><col>Black death</col>. <cd>See <er>Black death</er>, in the Vocabulary.</cd> -- <col>Civil death</col>, <cd>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. <i>Blackstone</i>.</cd> -- <col>Death adder</col>. <fld>(Zo\'94l.)</fld> <sd>(a)</sd> <cd>A kind of viper found in South Africa (<spn>Acanthophis tortor</spn>); -- so called from the virulence of its venom.</cd> <sd>(b)</sd> <cd>A venomous Australian snake of the family <spn>Elapid\'91</spn>, of several species, as the <spn>Hoplocephalus superbus</spn> and <spn>Acanthopis antarctica</spn>.</cd> -- <col>Death bell</col>, <cd>a bell that announces a death.</cd>

<blockquote>The <b>death bell</b> thrice was heard to ring. <i>Mickle.</i></blockquote>

-- <col>Death candle</col>, <cd>a light like that of a candle, viewed by the superstitious as presaging death.</cd> -- <col>Death damp</col>, <cd>a cold sweat at the coming on of death.</cd> -- <col>Death fire</col>, <cd>a kind of ignis fatuus supposed to forebode death.</cd>

<blockquote>And round about in reel and rout, The <b>death fires</b> danced at night. <i>Coleridge.</i></blockquote>

-- <col>Death grapple</col>, <cd>a grapple or struggle for life.</cd> -- <col>Death in life</col>, <cd>a condition but little removed from death; a living death. <mark>[Poetic]</mark> "Lay lingering out a five years' <i>death in life</i>." <i>Tennyson</i>.</cd> -- <col>Death knell</col>, <cd>a stroke or tolling of a bell, announcing a death.</cd> -- <col>Death rate</col>, <cd>the relation or ratio of the number of deaths to the population.</cd>

<blockquote>At all ages the <b>death rate</b> is higher in towns than in rural districts. <i>Darwin.</i></blockquote>

-- <col>Death rattle</col>, <cd>a rattling or gurgling in the throat of a dying person.</cd> -- <col>Death's door</col>, <cd>the boundary of life; the partition dividing life from death.</cd> -- <col>Death stroke</col>, <cd>a stroke causing death.</cd> -- <col>Death throe</col>, <cd>the spasm of death.</cd> -- <col>Death token</col>, <cd>the signal of approaching death.</cd> -- <col>Death warrant</col>. <sd>(a)</sd> <fld>(Law)</fld> <cd>An order from the proper authority for the execution of a criminal.</cd> <sd>(b)</sd> <cd>That which puts an end to expectation, hope, or joy.</cd> -- <col>Death wound</col>. <sd>(a)</sd> <cd>A fatal wound or injury.</cd> <sd>(b)</sd> <fld>(Naut.)</fld> <cd>The springing of a fatal leak.</cd> -- <col>Spiritual death</col> <fld>(Scripture)</fld>, <cd>the corruption and perversion of the soul by sin, with the loss of the favor of God.</cd> -- <col>The gates of death</col>, <cd>the grave.</cd>

<blockquote>Have <b>the gates of death</b> been opened unto thee? <i>Job xxxviii. 17.</i></blockquote>

-- <col>The second death</col>, <cd>condemnation to eternal separation from God. <i>Rev. ii. 11</i>.</cd> -- <col>To be the death of</col>, <cd>to be the cause of death to; to make die. "It was one who should <i>be the death of</i> both his parents."</cd> <i>Milton.</i></cs>

<syn>Syn. -- <er>Death</er>, <er>Decrase</er>, <er>Departure</er>, <er>Release</er>.</syn> <usage> <i>Death</i> applies to the termination of every form of existence, both animal and vegetable; the other words only to the human race. <i>Decease</i> is the term used in law for the removal of a human being out of life in the ordinary course of nature. <i>Demise</i> was formerly confined to decease of princes, but is now sometimes used of distinguished men in general; <as>as, the <ex>demise</ex> of Mr</as>. Pitt. <i>Departure</i> and <i>release</i> are peculiarly terms of Christian affection and hope. A violent <i>death</i> is not usually called a <i>decease</i>. <i>Departure</i> implies a friendly taking leave of life. <i>Release</i> implies a deliverance from a life of suffering or sorrow.</usage>

<h1>Deathbed</h1> <Xpage=373>

<hw>Death"bed</hw> <tt>(?)</tt>, <tt>n.</tt> <def>The bed in which a person dies; hence, the closing hours of life of one who dies by sickness or the like; the last sickness.</def>

<blockquote>That often-quoted passage from Lord Hervey in which the Queen's <b>deathbed</b> is described. <i>Thackeray.</i></blockquote>

<h1>Deathbird</h1> <Xpage=373>

<hw>Death"bird`</hw> <tt>(?)</tt>, <tt>n.</tt> <fld>(Zo\'94l.)</fld> <def>Tengmalm's or Richardson's owl (<spn>Nyctale Tengmalmi</spn>); -- so called from a superstition of the North American Indians that its note presages death.</def>