death-throe
Forms: α. 4 deþ þrowe, 6 Sc. deitht thrau, 7–9 death-throe; β. Sc. and north. dial. 4 ded thrau, dede þrawe, 6 dede-, deid-thraw, 7 dead-throe, 9 dead-thraw, -throw.
[f. death n. + throe; most frequent in the northern form dede-thraw, mod.Sc. deid-thraw.]
The agony of death, the death-struggle; also fig.
| c 1305 St. Christopher 192 in E.E.P. (1862) 64 Þat hire deþ þrowes were stronge. 1549 Compl. Scot. xiv. 121 Darius vas in the agonya and deitht thrau. 1849 Robertson Serm. Ser. i. xii. (1866) 210 The death-throes of Rome were long and terrible. |
| β a 1300 Cursor M. 26659 (Cott.) Quen ded thraus smites smert. 1535 Stewart Cron. Scot. III. 119 Sum in the deid⁓thraw la walterand in swoun. 1597 Montgomerie Cherrie & Slae 286 Like to an fische fast in the net, In deid-thraw vndeceist. 1645 Rutherford Tryal & Tri. Faith (1845) 279 In the dead-throe. 1815 Scott Guy M. ix, Ye maun come hame, sir,—for my lady's in the dead-thraw. 1826 E. Irving Babylon I. ii. 144 While it is the dead-throw, the last gasp and termination of life to the Papal Beast. |
b. fig. (
Sc.)
| 1808 Jamieson s.v., Meat is said to be in the deadthraw, when it is neither cold nor hot. 1822 Hogg Perils Man III. 116 (Jam.) One of those..winter days..when the weather is what the shepherds call in the dead⁓thraw, that is, in a struggle between frost and thaw. |