'Deathwatch' definitions:
Definition of 'deathwatch'
(from WordNet)
noun
Minute wingless psocopterous insects injurious to books and papers [syn: booklouse, book louse, deathwatch, Liposcelis divinatorius]
noun
Bores through wood making a ticking sound popularly thought to presage death [syn: deathwatch beetle, deathwatch, Xestobium rufovillosum]
Definition of 'Deathwatch'
From: GCIDE
- Deathwatch \Death"watch`\ (?; 224), n.
- 1. (Zool.) (a) A small beetle (Anobium tessellatum and other allied species). By forcibly striking its head against woodwork it makes a ticking sound, which is a call of the sexes to each other, but has been imagined by superstitious people to presage death. (b) A small wingless insect, of the family Psocid[ae], which makes a similar but fainter sound; -- called also deathtick. [1913 Webster]
- She is always seeing apparitions and hearing deathwatches. --Addison. [1913 Webster]
- I did not hear the dog howl, mother, or the deathwatch beat. --Tennyson. [1913 Webster]
- 2. The guard set over a criminal before his execution. [1913 Webster]
Synonyms of 'deathwatch'
From: Moby Thesaurus
- agony,
- burial service,
- death agonies,
- death groan,
- death rattle,
- death struggle,
- death throes,
- deathbed,
- dirge,
- dying breath,
- eulogy,
- exequies,
- extreme unction,
- extremity,
- final extremity,
- funeral oration,
- funeral rites,
- last agony,
- last breath,
- last duty,
- last gasp,
- last honors,
- last offices,
- last rites,
- moribundity,
- obsequies,
- requiem,
- requiem mass,
- throes of death,
- viaticum,
- wake