dearth 
His infusion of such dearth and rareness. 
Shak., Hamlet, v. 2. 
2. A condition of deafness or costliness from 
scarcity ; hence, failure of production or supply ; 
famine from failure or loss of crops. 
And the seven years of dmrth began to come, according 
as Joseph had said : and the dearth was ill all lands. 
Gen. xli. 54. 
In times of dearth it drained much coin out of the king- 
dom, to furnish us with corn from foreign parts. 
Bacon, Advice to Villiers. 
In this King's (Edward the Confessor's] Time such abun- 
dance of Snow fell in January, continuing till the middle 
of March following, that almost all Cattell and Fowl per- 
ished, and therewith an excessive Dearth followed. 
Raker, Chronicles, p. 18. 
3. Absence; lack; barrenness; poverty: as, a 
dearth of love ; a dearth of honest men. 
Pity the dearth that I have pined in, 
By longing for that food so long a time. 
Shak., T. G. of V., ii. 7. 
In the general dearth of admiration for the right thing, 
even a chance bray of applause falling exactly in time is 
rather fortifying. George Eliot, Middleraarch, II. 39. 
= Syn. 2. Famine, etc. See scarcity. 
deartht (derth), v. t. [< dearth, .] To cause 
a dearth or scarcity in; hence, to raise the 
price of. 
dearthful (derth'ful), a. [(= Icel. dyrtJiar-fullr, 
full of glory) < dearth + -//.] Expensive; 
costly; very dear. [Scotch.] 
Ye Scots, wha wish auld Scotland well, . . 
It sets you ill, 
Wi' bitter dearthfu' wines to inell. 
Burns, Scotch Drink. 
dearticulate (de-ar-tik'u-lat), v. t,; pret. and 
pp. dearticulated, ppr. dearticulating. [< L. de, 
from, + articulatus, pp. of articulare, joint, ar- 
ticulate.] To disjoint or disarticulate. 
dearticulation (de-ar-tik-u-la'shon), n. [< de 
+ articulation.] Same as abarticulation. 
dearwortht, a. [ME. derewurth, derwurth, dere- 
werth, etc.,< AS. dcdrwyrthe, dedrwurthc,<. deore, 
dear, + weorthc, worth.] 1. Costly; precious. 
Mani on other direwerthe ston 
That ihc [I) nu nempne (name] he can. 
King Horn (E. E. T. S.), p. 59. 
2. Worthy of being loved ; dearly beloved. 
This is my derworth sone. H'yclif, Mat. xvii. 5. 
dearworthlyt, adv. [ME. deoreworthliche ; as 
dearworth + -l\p.~\ Dearly; with fondness or 
affection. 
That heo with the wolle of bote deoreiporthliche dele. 
Spec, of Lyric Poetry (ed. Wright), p. 54. 
deary, dearie (der'i), . ; pi. dearies (-iz). 
[Dim. of dear 1 .] One who is dear; a dear; 
a darling : a familiar word of endearment. 
She sought it up, she sought it down, 
Till she was wet and weary ; 
And in the middle part o' it, 
There she got her deary. 
Willie's Drowned in Gamery (Child's Ballads, II. 184). 
Wilt thou be my dearie I Burns. 
deast (de'as), n. An obsolete spelling of dais. 
deasil (de'shel), n. [So., also written deasoil, 
deisheal, deasiul. repr. Gael, deiseil, deiseal, 
toward the south, taken in sense of 'toward 
the right,' < deas (= Ir. deas, Olr. dess, des = 
W. dehau. = L. dexter, right, = Skt. dakshina, 
right, south), south, right, right-hand, + iul, 
direction, guidance.] Motion according to the 
apparent course of the sun. See withershins. 
deaspirate (de-as'pi-rat), v. t. ; pret. and pp. 
deaspirated, ppr. deaspirating. [< de- priv. + 
asjrirate.'] To omit or remove the aspirate 
from. 
deaspiration (de-as-pi-ra'shon), n. [< deaspi- 
rate + -ion.] The removal" elision, or omis- 
sion of the aspirate from an aspirated word or 
syllable. 
death (deth), . [Early mod. E. also deth 
(dial, also dead, deid, etc.), < ME. deth, deeth, 
often ded, dede, < AS. death = OFries. dath, 
dad = OS. doth, dod = D. dood = MLG. dode = 
LG. dod = OHG. tod, tot, MHG. tot, G. tod = 
Icel. daudhr = Sw. Dan. dod = Goth, dauthus, 
death; from the strong verb represented by 
Goth. *<ttwa* (pret. *dau), die, seen also in Goth 
dauths, etc., E. dead, with suffix -th (orig. -thu, 
L. -tu-s), formative of nouns: see dead and 
r/te 1 .] 1. Cessation of life; that state of a 
being, animal or vegetable, in which there is a 
total and permanent cessation of all the vital 
functions. () In the abstract. 
Deeth is euere, as y trowe 
Tlic moost certcyn thing that is, 
And no thing is so vncerteyn to knowe 
As is the tyme of deeth y-wis. 
Babees Book (E. E. T. 8.), p. 52. 
1474 
Of the Fruit of Knowledge if thou feed, 
Death, dreadfnll Death shall plague Thee and Thy Seed. 
Sylvester, tr. of Du Bartas's Weeks, ii., Eden. 
Death ceased to be terrible when it was regarded rather 
as a remedy than as a sentence. 
Leckt/, Europ. Morals, I. 235. 
(6) Actual. 
Than scholde alle the Loud make Sorwe for his ]>ethe, 
and else nought. Mandeville, Travels, p. 89. 
So the dead which he [Samson] slew at his death were 
more than they which he slew in his life. Judges xvi. 30. 
There is not, perhaps, to a mind well instructed, a more 
painful occurrence than the death of one whom we have 
injured without reparation. Johnson, Rambler, No. 54. 
(c) Figurative or poetical. 
Sleep, that knits up the ravell'd sleave of care. 
The death of each day's life. Shalt., Macbeth, ii. 2. 
The year smiles as it draws near its death. 
Bryant, October. 
[In poetry and poetical prose death is often personified. 
O death, where is thy sting? 1 Cor. xv. 55. 
How wonderful is Death 
Death, and his brother Sleep ! 
Shelley, Queen Mab, i. 
Love paced the thymy plots of Paradise, 
And all about him roll'd his lustrous eyes ; 
When, turning round a cassia, full in view, 
Death, walking all alone beneath a yew, 
And talking to himself, first met his sight. 
Tennyson, Love and Death.] 
2. A general mortality; a deadly plague; a 
fatal epidemic: as, the black death (which see, 
below). 
Trevisa calls the Great Plague of 1349 " the grete deth." 
S. 11. Carpenter, Eng. in the XlVth Century, p. 164. 
3. The cessation of life in a particular part of 
an organic body, as a bone. 
The death is seen to extend about an inch from the end 
of each fragment, and from the living bone in the imme- 
diate vicinity an abundant effusion of callus was thrown 
in a ferule-like form, bridging over the space occupied by 
the sequestra. Buck's Handbook of Med. Sciences, V. 127. 
4. A skeleton, or the figure of a skeleton, as 
the symbol of mortality: as, a death's head. 
Strains that might create a soul 
Under the ribs of death. 
Milton, Comus, 1. 561. 
A gray and gap-tooth'd man as lean as death. 
Tennyson, Vision of Sin. 
5. A cause, agent, or instrument of death. 
O thou man of God, there is death in the pot. 
2 Ki. iv. 40. 
In this place | hell] 
Dwell many thousand thousand sundry sorts 
Of never-dying deaths. Ford, 'Tis Pity, etc., iii. 6. 
It was one who should be the death of both his parents. 
Milton. 
The bright death qniver'd at the victim's throat; 
Touch'd ; and I knew no more. 
Tennyson, Fair Women. 
6. Imminent deadly peril. 
Hadst thou lov'd me, and had my way been stuck 
With deaths as thick as frosty nights with stars, 
I would have ventur'd. 
Fletcher, Wife for a Month, iv. 3. 
7. A capital offense; an offense punishable 
with death. 
I would make it death 
For any male thing but to peep at us. 
Tennyson, Princess, Prol. 
8. The state or place of the dead. 
The gates of death. Job xxxviii. 17. 
9. The mode or manner of dying. 
Let me die the death of the righteous. Num. xxiii. 10. 
Thou shalt die the deaths of them that are slain in the 
midst of the seas. Ezek. xxviii. 8. 
10. Something as dreadful as death. 
It was death to them to think of entertaining such doc- 
trines. Bp. Atterbury. 
11. In Scripture: (a) The reverse of spiritual 
life ; the mere physical and sensuous life, with- 
out any activity of the spiritual or religious 
nature. 
To be carnally minded is death. 
Bom. viii. (i. 
(ft) After physical death, the final doom of those 
who have lived and died in separation from God 
and the divine life. 
If His [God's] favor be forfeited, the inevitable conse- 
quences are the death of the soul, that is. its loss of spir- 
itual life, and unending sinfulness and misery. 
Dr. Hodge, Systematic Theology, II. vi. 
Death when spoken of as the penal destiny of the wicked 
undoubtedly carries with it in all cases associations of sin 
and suffering as its consequences, suffering leading to de- 
struction. Edward White, Life in Christ, p. 108. 
1 2f. A slaughtering or killing A man of deatnt 
a murderer. 
Not to suffer a man of death to live. Bacon. 
civil death. 
death-bill 
This banishment is a kind of civil death. 
Fletcher, Spanish Curate, iv. 1. 
Dance of death. See dance. Death camass. See ca- 
mass. Death's door, gates of death, jaws of death, 
expressions for a near approach to death: as, he lay at 
death's door, or at the gate <>/ death; he was snatched 
from the jaws of death. 
Like one that hopelesse was depiyv'd 
From deatkett dore at which he lately lay. 
Spenser, Y. Q., V. iv. 35. 
Into the jaw* of Death, 
Into the mouth of Hell 
Rode the six hundred. 
Tennyson, Charge of the Light Brigade. 
In the article of death. See article. Second death, 
in theol., the state of lost soul.s after physical death ; eter- 
nal punishment. 
The fearful . . . and all liars shall have their part in the 
lake which burneth with fire and brimstone ; which is the 
second death. Rev. xxi. 8. 
The black death, the name given to a very destructive 
plague which, originating in eastern or central Asia, spread 
over Asia and Europe in the fourteenth century, attain- 
ing its height about 1348, characterized by inflammatory 
boils and black spots or petechiae of the skin, indicating 
putrid decomposition. Also called the black disease and 
the great death. To he death on. (a) To be a capital 
hand at; be an adept in (the doing of anything): as, the 
old doctor was death on fits. (6) To be passionately fond 
of ; have a great liking or capacity for : as, he was death 
on the sherry. [Vulgar in both uses.] 
Women, I believe, are born with certain natural tastes. 
Sally was death on lace. 5am Slick, p. 225. 
To be in at the death, iufvx-hutitiny, to come up with 
the game before it has been killed by the hounds ; hence, 
to be present at the finale or end of anything, as the defeat 
of an opponent. To death, to the point of being thor- 
oughly exhausted ; excessively : as, tired to death. 
We are worked to death in the House of Commons, and 
we are henceforth to sit on Saturdays. 
Macaulay, Life and Letters, I. 235. 
To die the death. See dfei. To do to death, to 
kill ; slay ; put to death, especially by repeated attacks or 
blows. 
Better it were ther to drowne hym-self than the luge 
sholde hym shamfully do hym to deth before the peple. 
Merlin (E. E. T. S.), i. 21. 
Done to death by slanderous tongues 
Was the Hero that here lies. 
Shak., Much Ado, v. 3. 
To put to death, to kill ; execute ; order or compass the 
death of. 
And I may not be byleved, wherfore I most with grete 
wronge be put to deth. Merlin (E. E. T. S.), i. 15. 
God not permitting so base a people to put to death so 
holy a Prophet did assume him into heaven. 
Sandys, Travailes, p. 43. 
To the death. () Till death ; while life lasts. 
These ahull the love and serve euer to the deth. 
Merlin (E. E. T. S.), i. 12li. 
(6) Mortally; to death. 
Upon a time sore sicke she fell, 
Yea to the very death. 
Gentleman in Thracia (Child's Ballads, VIII. 160). 
= Syn. 1. Death, Decease, Demise. See decease. 
death- a- co Id (deth'a-kold), a. Deadly cold. 
[Colloq. and rare, New Eng.] 
Her feet and hands, especially, had never seemed so 
death-a-cold as now. Ilawthome, .Seven Gables, p. 287. 
death-adder (deth'ad'fer), n. A venomous ser- 
pent of Australia, AcanthopMs antarctica. See 
Acanthophis. 
death-agony (deth'ag^o-ni), n. The agony or 
struggle wnich sometimes immediately pre- 
cedes death. 
death-bed (deth'bed), n. and a. [< ME. *deth- 
Icdde, < AS. dedtlt-bedd (= D. doodbed = G. tod- 
tenbctt), < death, death, + bcdd, bed.] I. n. 1. 
The bed on which a person dies or is confined 
in his last sickness. 
Sweet soul, take heed, 
Take heed of perjury ; thou'rt on thy death-bed. 
SArtt., Othello, v. 2. 
Hence 2. A person's last sickness ; sickness 
ending in death. 
A death-bed's a detector of the heart. 
l'mm.7, Night Thoughts, ii. 641. 
II. a. Of or pertaining to a death-bed, or to 
the circumstances of a person's death. 
A death-bed repentance ought not indeed to be neg- 
lected, because it is the last thing that we can do. 
Bp. Atterbttry, Sermons. 
Death-bed expenses, in SrotN law, expenses connected 
with a person's last sickness. 
death-bell (deth'bel), . 1. The bell that 
announces a death ; the passing-bell. 2. A 
sound in the ears like that of a tolling bell, sup- 
posed by the superstitious to presage death. 
() lady, 'tis dark, an' I heard the death-bell, 
An' dareua aav yonder fur gowd nor fee. 
//''.", Mountain Bard. 
Also, rarely, dead-bell. 
death-billt (aeth'bil), . A list of dead. See 
the extract. 
