death warrant (dethwor"ant)

1. In law, an order from the proper authority for the execution of a criminal.-2. Figuratively, anything which puts an end to hope or expectation. death-watch (deth'woch), n. 1. A vigil beside a dying person.-2. A guard set over a condemned criminal for some time prior to his execution.-3. The popular name of several small beetles which make a ticking or clicking sound, supposed by superstitious persons to be ominous of death. ( a ) Some species of the genus Anobium, or serricorn beetles, of the family Ptinidæ, as A. domesticum, A. te ella tum, and A. striatum. These insects abound in old houses, where they get into the wood by boring, and make a human skeleton, or a figure or painting rep rec licking sound by senting such a skull. I had rather to be married to a death's head with a bone in his mouth. Shak., M. of V., i. 2. 21. Specifically, in the sixteenth century, a ring with a death's-head on it. Oh! deathful stabs were dealt apace, The battle deepen'd in its place. 21. Cruel; painful, as death. Tennyson , Oriana. Your cruelty was such as you would spare his life for many deathful torments. Sir P. Sidney , Arcadia, ii. 3. Liable to death; mortal. Chapman . An appear The deathle gods, and deathful earth. death fulne (deth'ful-nes), n. ance of death or as of death; the state of being suggestive of or a ociated with death. Jer. Taylor . The whole picture [Turner's Slave-ship] is dedicated to the most sublime of subjects and impre ions, the power, majesty, and death fulne of the open, deep, illimitable sea. Ruskin .