Death (d&ebreve_;th), n. [OE. deth, deað, AS. deáð; akin to OS. dōð, D. dood, G. tod, Icel. dauði, Sw. & Dan. död, Goth. dauþus; 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.
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&hand_; 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.
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A death that I abhor. Shak.
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Let me die the death of the righteous. Num. xxiii. 10.
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4. Cause of loss of life.
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Swiftly flies the feathered death. Dryden.
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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.
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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.
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7. Murder; murderous character.
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Not to suffer a man of death to live. Bacon.
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8. (Theol.) Loss of spiritual life.
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To be carnally minded is death. Rom. viii. 6.
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9. Anything so dreadful as to be like death.
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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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&hand_; 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. (Zoöl.) (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 Elapidæ, of several species, as the Hoplocephalus superbus and Acanthopis antarctica. -- Death bell, a bell that announces a death.
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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.
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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. 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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