Dictionary

deathy en · ADJ

Pronunciation

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Etymology

From death + -y.

Meanings

1. (archaic, poetic) Relating to death.
   • I heard a lady near whom I happened to sit one evening in a river-steamer describe it to a companion, when its swampy flats came into sight, as "a deathy place." The phrase was picturesque, effective and very appropriate. It did look a deathy place; but it had the advantages — to me supreme — of being very cheap, and of having easy access to the river, and therefore to town. 1869 February, Justin McCarthy, “My Enemy's Daughter”, in Mary Elizabeth Braddon, editor, Belgravia, volume 7, page 186:
   • 1829, Robert Southey, A Tale of Paraguay, Canto IV, XXXVIII, The Poetical Works of Robert Southey, page 569, The sunny hue that tinged her cheek was gone, / A deathy paleness settled in its stead;
   • The deathy stillness of a town, and the barred windows, and shut shops, and empty streets, and great long lines of big brick buildins,^([sic]) look melancholy. 1836, Thomas Chandler Haliburton, The Clockmaker: Or, The Sayings and Doings of Samuel Slick of Slickville, First Series, published 1840, page 83:

Forms

Deriveds

deathiness