Death

• I. 1. The act or fact of dying; the end of life; the final cessation of the vital functions of an animal or plant. a. of an individual.

b. in the abstract.

c. as a personified agent. (Usually figured as a skeleton; see also DEATH'S-HEAD.)

---

For lessons on the topic of Death, follow this link.

---

2. The state of being dead; the state or condition of being without life, animation, or activity. death-in-life, life that lacks any satisfaction or purpose; living death. (Cf. quot. 1841 s.v. DEATHLINESS.) ¶In preceding senses the death was frequent in Old and Middle English, and down to the 16th c. See also 7, 12c, 13; to die the death: see DIE.

3. transf. The loss or cessation of life in a particular part or tissue of a living being.

4. Loss of sensation or vitality, state of unconsciousness, swoon. Obs. rare. (Cf. DEAD a. 2.)

5. fig. a. The loss or want of spiritual life; the being or becoming spiritually dead. the second death: the punishment or destruction of lost souls after physical death.

b. Loss or deprivation of civil life; the fact or state of being cut off from society, or from certain rights and privileges, as by banishment, imprisonment for life, etc. (Usually civil death.)

c. Of a thing: Cessation of being, end, extinction, destruction.

6. Bloodshed, slaughter, murder.

7. Cause or occasion of death, as in to be the death of; something that kills, or renders liable to death; often hyperbolically; poet. a deadly weapon, poison, etc.