English

Alternative forms

• death-knell

Noun

death knell ‎(plural death knells)

1. The tolling of a bell announcing death.
   • 1873, Thomas Hardy, A Pair of Blue Eyes, ch. 25:

     The sound was the stroke of a bell from the tower of East Endelstow Church. . . . The death-knell of an inhabitant of the eastern parish was being tolled.

   • 1890, Ambrose Bierce, An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge, ch. 1:

     Its recurrence was regular, but as slow as the tolling of a death-knell.

2. (idiomatic, by extension) A sign or omen foretelling the death or destruction of something.
   • 1901, Upton Sinclair, King Midas, ch. 10:

     The thought was a death-knell to Helen's last hope.

   • 2004, Jamie James, "The Rise of a Musical Superpower," Time, 28 June:

     "It is the death knell of an orchestra if it doesn't have its own home," he says.

Translations