death knell

See also: death-knell

English

Alternative forms

• death-knell

Pronunciation

• Audio (AU):

  (file)

Noun

death knell (plural death knells)

1. The tolling of a bell announcing death.
   • 1873, Thomas Hardy, chapter 25, in A Pair of Blue Eyes:

     The sound was the stroke of a bell from the tower of East Endelstow Church. . . . The death-knell of an inhabitant of the eastern parish was being tolled.

   • 1890, Ambrose Bierce, chapter 1, in An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge:

     Its recurrence was regular, but as slow as the tolling of a death-knell.

2. (idiomatic, by extension) A sign or omen foretelling the death or destruction of something.
   • 1901, Upton Sinclair, chapter 10, in King Midas:

     The thought was a death-knell to Helen's last hope.

   • 2004, Jamie James, "The Rise of a Musical Superpower," Time, 28 June:

     "It is the death knell of an orchestra if it doesn't have its own home," he says.

   • 2018, Michael Cottakis – LSE, “Colliding worlds: Donald Trump and the European Union”, in LSE's blog‎^[1]:

     A rupture would represent a death knell for the West and would harm the US worker.

Translations

tolling of a bell announcing death

• Arabic: صُور m (ṣūr)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 喪鐘／丧钟 (zh) (sāngzhōng), 丧钟 (zh) (sāngzhōng)

• Finnish: kuolinkellot (fi) pl
• French: glas (fr) m
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• German: Totenglocke (de) f, Totengeläut (de) n
• Italian: rintocco funebre m
• Japanese: 弔鐘 (ちょうしょう, chōshō)
• Russian: погреба́льный звон m (pogrebálʹnyj zvon)

sign foretelling the death or destruction of something

• Finnish: kuolinkellot (fi) pl
• French: glas (fr) m
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• German: Todesstoß m
• Russian: погреба́льный звон m (pogrebálʹnyj zvon), стра́шное предзнаменова́ние n (strášnoje predznamenovánije)