Search the Dictionary

After death; as, post-mortem rigidity. Post-mortem examination (Med.), an examination of the body made after the death of the patient; an autopsy.

ed a certain sum of money, binds himself to pay a larger sum, on unusual interest, on the death of some specified individual from whom he has expectations. Bouvier.

Born after the death of the father, or taken from the dead body of the mother; as, a posthumous son or daughter.

one's prayers. He made those excellent prayers which were published immediately after his death. Bp. Fell. Prayer book, a book containing devotional prayers. -- Prayer meeting, a meeting or gathering for prayer to God.

Ending quickly in death; brief and fatal; as, a precipitate case of disease. [Obs.] Arbuthnot.

The death of one person or thing before another. [R.] Brougham.

To anticipate; to take before. [Obs.] "Fear preoccupateth it [death]." Bacon.

e's self ready; to get ready; to take the necessary previous measures; as, to prepare for death.

without delay. [Obs.] "With them, in present, half his kingdom; the rest to follow at his death." Milton.

; as, pretense of illness; under pretense of patriotism; on pretense of revenging Cæsar's death.

officially or solemnly; to deliver, as a decree or sentence; as, to pronounce sentence of death. Sternly he pronounced The rigid interdiction. Milton.

ropitiates; atonement or atoning sacrifice; specifically, the influence or effects of the death of Christ in appeasing the divine justice, and conciliating the divine favor. He [Jesus Christ] is the propitiation for our sins. 1 John ii. 2.

To defer; to delay; to postpone; as, to proroguedeath; to prorogue a marriage. Shak.

The act of proscribing; a dooming to death or exile; outlawry; specifically, among the ancient Romans, the public offer of a reward for the head of a political enemy; as, under the triumvirate, many of the best Roman citizens fell by proscription. Every victory by either party had been followed by a sanguinary proscrip…

one who had the charge of writing the acts of the martyrs, and the circumstances of their death; now, one of twelve persons, constituting a college in the Roman Curia, whose office is to register pontifical acts and to make and preserve the official record of beatifications.

ordly; presumptuous. Nor much expect A foe so proud will first the weaker seek. Milton. O death, made proud with pure and princely beauty ! Shak. And shades impervious to the proud world's glare. Keble.

ur children to wrath. Eph. vi. 4. Such acts Of contumacy will provoke the Highest To make death in us live. Milton. Can honor's voice provoke the silent dust Gray. To the poet the meaning is what he pleases to make it, what it provokes in his own soul. J. Burroughs.

The doctrine that the soul falls asleep at death, and does not wake until the resurrection of the body. -- Psy`cho*pan"ny*chism, n.

r's amendment; to cause to suffer in retribution; to chasten; as, to punish traitors with death; a father punishes his child for willful disobedience. A greater power Now ruled him, punished in the shape he sinned. Milton.

unishment; involving, awarding, or inflicting punishment; as, punitive law or justice. If death be punitive, so, likewise, is the necessity imposed upon man of toiling for his subsistence. I. Taylor. We shall dread a blow from the punitive hand. Bagehot.