Deathling
noun ·Rare ·Advanced level
Definitions
- 1 A mortal; one who will die.
"God gives and takes away your breath: What more have ye? Breath is your life, and life your soul; Ye have it warm from His kind hands: Then yield it back to the great Whole When He demands. Why, deathling, wilt thou long for Heaven?"
- 2 A supernatural being associated with death, especially a child of death.
"The interest of his realm had need That death should get a numerous breed; Young deathlings, who by practice made Proficient in their father's trade"
- 3 A dead child. rare
"In my mind's eye I gather the resident who did the tracheotomy, his patient with her collapsible veins, the nurse who said " Good," and, of course, the deathling in the bed."
Example
More examples"God gives and takes away your breath: What more have ye? Breath is your life, and life your soul; Ye have it warm from His kind hands: Then yield it back to the great Whole When He demands. Why, deathling, wilt thou long for Heaven?"
Etymology
From death + -ling.
More for "deathling"
Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.