deathward, adv. and a.
(ˈdɛθwəd)
Forms: see death n.
[See -ward.]
A. adv. In the direction of death, towards death. a. orig. to (one's) deathward = towards one's death.
| c 1430 Lydg. Bochas i. ix. (1544) 18 b, Kind [= Nature] to his deathward..doth him dispose. c 1440 Gesta Rom. xlvii. 202 (Harl. MS.), I sawe him go to deþeward. c 1530 Ld. Berners Arth. Lyt. Bryt. (1814) 129 Ye shall not go to your dethward. 1876 Swinburne Erechth. 705 And wash to deathward down one flood of doom. |
| β 1340 Hampole Pr. Consc. 807 When he drawes to dedward. c 1400 Mandeville (Roxb.) xxi. 96 When þaire frendez drawez to þe deed ward. |
b. without
to.
| 1844 Mrs. Browning Poems, Lady Geraldine's Courtship Concl. ix, So..Would my heart and life flow onward, deathward. 1887 Swinburne Locrine iv. i. 77 Our senses sink From dream to dream down deathward. |
B. adj. Tending towards death.
| 1854 ‘G. Greenwood’ Haps & Mishaps 43 O immortal stones,..mocking..the mournful mortality, the deathward throbbing, of the brows ye encircle! 1882 Swinburne 8 Yrs. Old in Tristram of L. 257 Sounds of dying and dawning years, Now quickened on his deathward way. 1899 Daily News 17 Oct. 8/3 A pleasant-looking, neatly-dressed woman on the deathward side of fifty. 1937 J. M. Murry Necessity of Pacifism v. 86 The individualized, by the very fact of its individualization, belongs to the deathward movement of society. |