deathbed
nounUK /ˈdɛθˌbɛd/
Etymology From Middle English dethbed, from Old English dēaþbedd (“deathbed; grave”), equivalent to death + bed. Cognate with Swedish dödsbädd (“deathbed”). Compare also Dutch sterfbed (“deathbed”), German Sterbebett and Totenbett (both “deathbed”), Danish dødsleje (“deathbed”).
1
The bed on which someone dies.
- He was once on his way to an old woman, who was on her death-bed and who had led a wicked life.1886, Peter Christen Asbjørnsen, translated by H.L. Brækstad, Folk and Fairy Tales, page 254:
2
The last hours before death.
3
A grave; the site of a burial or entombment.
- “Will you ask our oldest warriors to build me a barrow? Ask them to climb this headland and build me a death pile high on its top. Let my deathbed rise high above Hronesnesse.”1961, Norma Lorre Goodrich, “Beowulf”, in The Medieval Myths, New York: The New American Library, page 47:
- Derived terms
- deathbed conversion, on one's deathbed