Source : Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913)

Death \Death\, n. [OE. deth, dea?, AS. de['a]?; akin to OS. d??,
   D. dood, G. tod, Icel. dau?i, Sw. & Dan. d["o]d, Goth.
   daupus; 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.

   Note: Local death is going on at 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.

   2. Total privation or loss; extinction; cessation; as, the
      death of memory.

            The death of a language can not be exactly compared
            with the death of a plant.            --J. Peile.

   3. Manner of dying; act or state of passing from life.

            A death that I abhor.                 --Shak.

            Let me die the death of the righteous. --Num. xxiii.
                                                  10.

   4. Cause of loss of life.

            Swiftly flies the feathered death.    --Dryden.

            He caught his death the last county sessions.
                                                  --Addison.

   5. Personified: The destroyer of life, -- conventionally
      represented as a skeleton with a scythe.

            Death! great proprietor of all.       --Young.

            And I looked, and behold a pale horse; and his name
            that at on him was Death.             --Rev. vi. 8.

   6. Danger of death. ``In deaths oft.'' --2 Cor. xi. 23.

   7. Murder; murderous character.

            Not to suffer a man of death to live. --Bacon.

   8. (Theol.) Loss of spiritual life.

            To be ??????? m????? is death.        --Rom. viii.
                                                  6.

   9. Anything so dreadful as to be like death.

            It was death to them to think of entertaining such
            doctrines.                            --Atterbury.

            And urged him, so that his soul was vexed unto
            death.                                --Judg. xvi.
                                                  16.

   Note: 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.

   {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}. (Zo["o]l.)
      (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
          {Elapid[ae]}, of several species, as the
          {Hoplocephalus superbus} and {Acanthopis antarctica}.
          

   {Death bell}, a bell that announces a death.

            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.

            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 knell}, a stroke or tolling of a bell, announcing a
      death.

   {Death rate}, the relation or ratio of the number of deaths
      to the population.

            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.

            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}.

   Usage: 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.

Black death \Black" death`\
   A pestilence which ravaged Europe and Asia in the fourteenth
   century.

Source : WordNet®

Black Death
     n : the epidemic form of bubonic plague experienced during the
         Middle Ages when it killed nearly half the people of
         western Europe [syn: {black plague}]