DEATH


Meaning of DEATH in English

ˈdeth noun

( plural deaths -ths sometimes -thz)

Etymology: Middle English deeth, deth, from Old English dēath; akin to Old High German tōd death, Old Norse dauthi, Gothic dauthus; derivative from the root of Old Norse deyja to die — more at die

1. : the ending of all vital functions without possibility of recovery either in animals or plants or any parts of them : the end of life : the act, process, or fact of dying

2.

a. : the cause or occasion of loss of life

drinking was the death of him

: a deadly weapon or agency

a cobra with death in its fangs

b. archaic : plague — see black death

3. usually capitalized : the bringer of death personified and conventionally represented as a skeleton with a scythe : the destroyer of life : grim reaper

4.

a. : the state of being no longer alive

in death as in life

b. : a joyless dull tasteless existence : the state of being without full possession or enjoyment of the intellectual or physical faculties

the death in life of long years spent in a hospital bed

c. : cessation or absence of spiritual life variously conceived as alienation from God, deadness to the appeals of spiritual ideals, annihilation of the spirit as a result of sin, or irredeemable damnation — called also spiritual death

to be carnally minded is death — Rom 8:6 (Authorized Version)

5. : the passing or destruction of something inanimate

the death of the rackety old Third Avenue El — Newsweek

or intangible

the death of all his hopes

the death of vaudeville

: the process of such passing

the death of the empire

: extinction

the death of a species

6. : civil death

7. : lethal or murderous violence : homicide

merchants of death

a man of death — Francis Bacon

8. Christian Science : the lie of life in matter : that which is unreal and untrue : illusion

- at death's door

- be death on

- in at the death

- to death

- to the death

Webster's New International English Dictionary.      Новый международный словарь английского языка Webster.