death rattle

See synonyms for death rattle on Thesaurus.com
noun
  1. a sound produced by a person immediately preceding death, resulting from the passage of air through the mucus in the throat.

Origin of death rattle

1
First recorded in 1820–30

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024

How to use death rattle in a sentence

  • Inside, on the floor, lay a poor old woman, the death-rattle in whose throat proclaimed that her end was fast approaching.

  • He had the death rattle and was spitting up blood, which ran out of the corners of his mouth at every gasp.

  • "You come too late, brother," the wounded man murmured, in a voice choking with the death rattle.

  • I plainly heard the wheeze of blood in its throat, and the sound, like a death-rattle, affected me powerfully.

  • I walk up to him with finger on trigger at a ready, but the death-rattle is in his throat, and another shot is unnecessary.

British Dictionary definitions for death rattle

death rattle

noun
  1. a low-pitched gurgling sound sometimes made by a dying person, caused by air passing through an accumulation of mucus in the trachea

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012