Definitions

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun The struggle which in some cases accompanies death.

Etymologies

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Examples

  • They say that in his death-throe he arose and facing some great, ghostly choir raised his last baton, while all around the massive silence rang with the last mist-music of his dying ears.

    DARKWATER W.E.B. DU BOIS 2004

  • I looked up; but Diokles was watching the death-throe, leaning easily on his spear.

    The King Must Die Renault, Mary, 1905-1983 1958

  • One more great writhe and wallow she gave, that ground the spear butt upon the rock; but it was her death-throe.

    The King Must Die Renault, Mary, 1905-1983 1958

  • A dismal shriek, the utterance of agony and terror, rose from the barbarian's lips; and then came the sound of his footsteps, as he darted, with a cry still wilder, into the forest, pursued by the sound of other steps; and then all again was silent, -- all save groans, and the rustling in the grass of limbs convulsed in the death-throe at the soldier's side.

    Nick of the Woods Robert M. Bird

  • More than one stretched back upon the meagre pillow, was in her death-throe groping in the air, with glazed eyes rolled upward to the ceiling, while the under jaw dropped lower, lower, leaving the mouth half open never to be closed again, save by a penitentiary nurse.

    The Old Homestead Ann S. Stephens

  • M. de Meaux, a friend of the family, read the prayers for the dying, to which the Duchess made response, and three minutes before the final death-throe, she consented to let him preach a funeral sermon in eulogy of herself and her husband.

    Court Memoirs of France Series — Complete Various

  • Just before the lifeboat approached, as if in a death-throe, the ship reeled inwards, and her tottering masts leaned to port, or towards the lifeboat and against the wind -- thus adding great peril to the work of rescue.

    Heroes of the Goodwin Sands Thomas Stanley Treanor

  • They say that in his death-throe he arose and facing some great, ghostly choir raised his last baton, while all around the massive silence rang with the last mist-music of his dying ears.

    Darkwater Voices from Within the Veil 1915

  • The two Things met -- the one untouched and the other in its death-throe -- male and female, we said, the female coming to the male.

    The Kipling Reader Selections from the Books of Rudyard Kipling Rudyard Kipling 1900

  • Page 87 years of blood and tears, of fire and sword, was at last convulsed in its last death-throe.

    Autobiography of James L. Smith, Including, Also, Reminiscences of Slave Life, Recollections of the War, Education of Freedmen, Causes of the Exodus, Etc. James Lindsay Smith 1881

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