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Definition 2024
deathbed_conversion
deathbed conversion
See also: death-bed conversion and death bed conversion
English
Noun
deathbed conversion (plural deathbed conversions)
- (set phrase) Acceptance of religious belief immediately before one dies, usually in a last-minute effort to save one's soul or to gain entry into a paradisiacal afterlife.
- 2011 Dec. 16, William Grimes, "Christopher Hitchens, Polemicist Who Slashed All, Freely, Dies at 62," New York Times (retrieved 28 May 2015):
- Mr. Hitchens discussed the possibility of a deathbed conversion, insisting that the odds were slim that he would admit the existence of God.
- 2011 Dec. 16, William Grimes, "Christopher Hitchens, Polemicist Who Slashed All, Freely, Dies at 62," New York Times (retrieved 28 May 2015):
- (idiomatic, usually sarcastic, often politics) An abrupt, last-minute change in one's professed beliefs, principles, or point of view in order to escape a serious threat or to increase one's chances of success.
- 1996 Nov. 17, "Whatever," Newsweek (retrieved 28 May 2015):
- The dilemma was how to propose a big tax cut and still look credible. Dole knew that the Democrats would mock him for a deathbed conversion.
- 2002 July 16, Richard A. Oppel Jr. and David E. Sanger, "House Passes Bill to Combat Corporate and Securities Fraud," New York Times (retrieved 28 May 2015):
- "A deathbed conversion" was how Representative John LaFalce of New York State described the House Republicans' change of heart.
- 2010 Feb. 10, Andrew Grice, "Brown's insurance against defeat," Independent (UK) (retrieved 28 May 2015):
- Gordon Brown's deathbed conversion to electoral reform may look like pure opportunism and widening the goalposts for his team just as the match kicks off.
- 1996 Nov. 17, "Whatever," Newsweek (retrieved 28 May 2015):