death

I

(New American Roget's College Thesaurus)

Absence of life

Nouns

1. death, expiration, decease, demise, the grave, the narrow bed, one's latter end; end, cessation; loss, extinction, or ebb of life, mortality experience; dissolution, departure, passing on or away; release, [eternal or final] rest, quietus, fall; stillbirth; thanatology; mortality; morbidity; loss, bereavement; death instinct, thanatos; death rate, death toll; death's head; memento mori; necrophilia; skull and crossbones; megadeath. Slang, back-gate parole, cold storage, last roundup.

2. (surroundings of death) death warrant, death watch, death rattle, deathbed; stroke, agonies, or shades of death; valley of the shadow of death, jaws, gates, or hand of death, great divide; last breath, last gasp, last agonies; dying day or breath; swan song; rigor mortis; Stygian shore; last will [and testament], living will, no-code; autopsy, coroner's inquest. Slang, curtains, last roundup.

3. (mythology of death) Death, king of terrors, King of Death; Grim Reaper, Angel of Death, Azrael; mortality, doom; the great leveler; pale rider; river Styx, river of death.

4. (cause of death) natural, sudden, or violent death, untimely end, drowning, watery grave; suffocation, asphyxia; Black Death, plague, disease, fatality; death blow, asphyxiation, choking, overdose, OD, old age, pestilence, smothering, starvation, suffocation; brain death; euthanasia; beheading, suicide (see killing); kiss of death; demographic fatigue; no mayday, do not resuscitate, DNR.

5. (records of death) necrology, bills of mortality; obituary, obit; death song (see lamentation). Informal, obit.

6. casualty, fatality; corpse, body, cadaver, carcass; [mortal] remains; [dry] bones, skeleton, relics; dust, ashes, earth, clay; mummy, fossil, carrion, food for worms or fishes; tenement of clay, this mortal coil; the deceased, the decedent, the [dear] departed; zombie; shade, ghost; widow[er]; dead duck; road kill. Informal, goner. Slang, stiff, crowbait, cold meat, landowner, road pizza, flatliner, gork.

7. death house; hospice, palliative care unit.

Verbs

1. die [off], expire, perish, go, depart; drown, smother; suffocate; meet one's death or end; pass away, be taken, yield or resign one's breath, resign one's being or life, end one's days or life, breathe one's last, cease to live or breathe, depart this life, leave this world, go the way of all flesh, join the great majority, meet one's maker, go to a better world; be no more; lose, lay down, relinquish, or surrender one's life; die for one's country; sink into the grave, close one's eyes, fall dead, drop [down] dead, succumb; break one's neck, give up or yield the ghost; die in harness; walk the plank; die with one's boots on or in one's boots, die a violent death; predecease. Informal, bite the dust, cash in [one's chips], flatline, go to the last roundup, pass over Jordan, join the choir invisible, jump the last hurdle. Slang, kick in or off, kick the bucket, go belly-up, check out, croak, pop off, take a ride, sign off, turn up one's toes, buy the farm, beam up, cross the great divide, code out, go south or west.

2. put to death (see killing); pay the debt to nature, shuffle off this mortal coil, take one's last sleep, go the way of all flesh; come, turn, or return to dust, cross the Styx, go to one's long account or one's last home, go west, go to Davy Jones's locker, cross the bar; receive one's death warrant, make one's will, die a natural death, go out like a candle; come to an untimely end; catch one's death.

3. be on the brink of death, have one foot in the grave, not be long for this world, turn one's face to the wall.

4. bereave, widow, orphan; leave behind.

Adjectives

1. dead, lifeless; deceased, demised, departed, defunct; late, gone, no more; asleep; dead on arrival, DOA; brain-dead; at peace, at rest; exanimate, inanimate; out of the world, taken off, released, departed this life, dead and gone, launched into eternity, gathered to one's fathers, numbered with the dead; stillborn, extinct; beyond the veil. Informal, dead as a doornail, stone dead, stiff, pushing up the daisies, six feet under, done in. Slang, eightysixed, iced, on ice, ten toes up.

2. fatal, deadly (see killing).

3. (in the process of dying) dying, moribund, in extremis, amort (archaic), in the jaws of death; mortally ill or wounded; going [off], on one's deathbed; at the point of death, at death's door, at the last gasp, done for, on one's last legs, on the spot; with one foot in the grave, in articulo mortis, as good as dead, done for; perimortem, postmortem.

Phrases — let the dead bury the dead; dead men tell no tales; death is the great leveler; you can only die once; the sands of life are running out.

Quotations — Dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return (Bible), O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory? (Bible), And I looked, and behold a pale horse, and his name that sat on him was Death (Bible), Nothing in his life became him like the leaving it (Shakespeare), A great reckoning in a little room (Shakespeare), All that lives must die, passing through nature to eternity (Shakespeare), Let's talk of graves, of worms, and epitaphs (Shakespeare), The undiscovered country, from whose bourn no traveler returns (Shakespeare), Never send to know for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee (John Donne), Death must be distinguished from dying, with which it is often confused (Sydney Smith), Dying is an art, like everything else (Sylvia Plath).

Antonyms, see life.

II

(Roget's IV) n.

1. [The cessation of life]

Syn. decease, dying, demise, passing, expiration, failure of vital functions, loss of life, dissolution, departure, release, parting, quietus, end of life, extinction, oblivion, mortality, euthanAsia, passing away, loss, perishing, necrosis, brain death, rigor mortis, the Grim Reaper, Thanatos, Azrael, exit*, end*, finish*, finis*, roll call*, the way of all flesh*, debt to nature*, the Great Divide*, crossing the river*, crossing the bar*, the Great adventure*, eternal rest*, last rest*, the deep end*, last roundup*, curtains*; see also destruction 1 .

Ant. birth*, beginning, life.

2. [The state after death]

Syn. repose, sleep, separation, darkness, afterlife, other world, grave, tomb, future home, heaven, paradise, hell, purgatory, eternal rest*, Abraham's bosom*, the big sleep*; see also heaven 2 , hell 1 .

Ant. life*, living, existence.

• at death's door,

Syn. failing, wasting away, nearly dead; see dying 1 , 2 .

• put to death,

Syn. execute, cause to be killed, murder; see kill 1 .

• to death,

Syn. very much, extremely, to the extreme; see very .

• to the death,

Syn. to the end, to the bitter end, constantly, always; see forever 1 , loyally .

III

(Roget's 3 Superthesaurus) n.

demise, end, dying, decease, passing, expiration, parting, termination, release, rest, extinction, mortality, in extremis, *curtains, *lights out, *last roundup, *finis, *grim reaper, *show stopper, afterlife, fatality, oblivion, repose. ''When the soul shall emerge from its sheath.''—Marcus Aurelius. ''A black camel, which kneels at the gates Algernon Swinburne. ''The undiscovered country. —Shakespeare. ''The grand perhaps. —Robert Browning. ''A pale horse. —Bible. ''The port where all may refuge find. —William Alexander.

WORD FIND

• after death, occurring: posthumous

• DOA: dead on arrival

• fear of: necrophobia, thanatophobia

• gurgle at last breath: death rattle

• herald of: banshee

• investigation of: inquest, autopsy, postmortem

• march: dirge

• mercy killing: euthanasia

• notice: obituary, necrology

• omen: knell

• reminder or symbol of: memento mori, death’s head

• study of: thanatology

• watch: vigil

see afterlife, cemetery, corpse, dead, die, funeral, heaven, immortality

IV

(Roget's Thesaurus II) noun 1. The act or fact of dying: decease, demise, dissolution, extinction, passing, quietus, rest1. Slang: curtain (used in plural). See LIVE. 2. A termination of life, usually as the result of an accident or a disaster: casualty, fatality. See LIVE.