Dean Dean noun [ Middle English
dene ,
deene , Old French
deien ,
dien , French
doyen , eldest of a corporation, a dean, Latin
decanus the chief of ten, one set over ten persons,
e. g. , over soldiers or over monks, from
decem ten. See
Ten , and confer
Decemvir .]
1. A dignitary or presiding officer in certain ecclesiastical and lay bodies; esp., an ecclesiastical dignitary, subordinate to a bishop. Dean of cathedral church ,
the chief officer of a chapter; he is an ecclesiastical magistrate next in degree to bishop, and has immediate charge of the cathedral and its estates. --
Dean of peculiars ,
a dean holding a preferment which has some peculiarity relative to spiritual superiors and the jurisdiction exercised in it. [ Eng.] --
Rural dean ,
one having, under the bishop, the especial care and inspection of the clergy within certain parishes or districts of the diocese. 2. The collegiate officer in the universities of Oxford and Cambridge, England, who, besides other duties, has regard to the moral condition of the college. Shipley. 3. The head or presiding officer in the faculty of some colleges or universities. 4. A registrar or secretary of the faculty in a department of a college, as in a medical, or theological, or scientific department. [ U.S.]
5. The chief or senior of a company on occasion of ceremony; as, the dean of the diplomatic corps; -- so called by courtesy. Cardinal dean ,
the senior cardinal bishop of the college of cardinals at Rome. Shipley. --
Dean and chapter ,
the legal corporation and governing body of a cathedral. It consists of the dean, who is chief, and his canons or prebendaries. --
Dean of arches ,
the lay judge of the court of arches. --
Dean of faculty ,
the president of an incorporation or barristers; specifically, the president of the incorporation of advocates in Edinburgh. --
Dean of guild ,
a magistrate of Scotch burghs, formerly, and still, in some burghs, chosen by the Guildry, whose duty is to superintend the erection of new buildings and see that they conform to the law. --
Dean of a monastery ,
Monastic dean ,
a monastic superior over ten monks. --
Dean's stall .
See Decanal stall , under Decanal .
Death Death (dĕth)
noun [ Middle English
deth ,
deağ , Anglo-Saxon
deáğ ; akin to Old Saxon
dōğ , Dutch
dood , German
tod , Icelandic
dauği , Swedish & Danish
död , Goth.
dauþus ; from a verb meaning
to die . See
Die ,
intransitive verb , and confer
Dead .]
1. The cessation of all vital phenomena without capability of resuscitation, either in animals or plants. »
Local death is going on at all 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 sat 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 carnally minded 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. »
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,
death bed or
death bed;
death blow 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 .
(Zoology) (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 Elapidæ , 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) (Nautical) 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 .
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.