• Die

    Pronunciation

    • enPR: dÄ«, IPA: /daɪ/
    • Rhymes: -aɪ

    Origin 1

    From Middle English dien, deien, deȝen, from Old English dīġan, dīeġan ("to die") and Old Norse deyja ("to die, pass away"), both from Proto-Germanic *dawjaną ("to die") (compare Danish dø, Low German döen, Middle Dutch doyen, douwen, Old High German touwen), from Proto-Indo-European *dʰew- ("to pass away; to die") (compare Old Norse dá ("catalepsy"), Old Irish díth ("end, death"), Old Church Slavonic давити ("to strangle"), Albanian vdes ("to die"), vdekje ("death"), Armenian դի ("corpse"), Avestan (dvaidī, "we press")).

    J. P. Mallory, Douglas Q. Adams, Encyclopedia of Indo-European Culture (London: Fitzroy Dearborn, 1999), page 150, s.v. "death"

    Vladimir Orel, A Handbook of Germanic Etymology (Leiden, Netherlands: Brill, 2003).

    Full definition of die

    Verb

    1. (intransitive) To stop living; to become dead; to undergo death.
      1. followed by of; general use:
        • 1839, Charles Dickens, Oliver Twist, Penguin 1985, page 87:"What did she die of, Work'us?" said Noah. "Of a broken heart, some of our old nurses told me," replied Oliver.
        • 2000, Stephen King, On Writing, Pocket Books 2002, page 85:In 1971 or 72, Mom's sister Carolyn Weimer died of breast cancer.
      2. followed by from; general use, though somewhat more common in the context of medicine or the sciences:
        • 1865, British Medical Journal, 4 Mar 1865, page 213:She lived several weeks; but afterwards she died from epilepsy, to which malady she had been previously subject.
        • 2007, Frank Herbert & Kevin J. Anderson, Sandworms of Dune, Tor 2007, page 191:"Or all of them will die from the plague. Even if most of the candidates succumb. . ."
      3. followed by for; often expressing wider contextual motivations, though sometimes indicating direct causes:
        • 1961, Joseph Heller, Catch-22, Simon & Schuster 1999, page 232:Englishmen are dying for England, Americans are dying for America, Germans are dying for Germany, Russians are dying for Russia. There are now fifty or sixty countries fighting in this war.
        • 2003, Tara Herivel & Paul Wright (editors), Prison Nation, Routledge 2003, page 187:Less than three days later, Johnson lapsed into a coma in his jail cell and died for lack of insulin.
      4. (now rare) followed by with as an indication of direct cause:
        • 1600, William Shakespeare, Much Ado About Nothing, Act III, Scene I:Therefore let Benedicke like covered fire,
          Consume away in sighes, waste inwardly:
          It were a better death, to die with mockes,
          Which is as bad as die with tickling.
        • 1830, Joseph Smith, The Book of Mormon, Richards 1854, page 337:And there were some who died with fevers, which at some seasons of the year was very frequent in the land.
      5. (still current) followed by with as an indication of manner:She died with dignity.
      6. (transitive) To stop living and undergo (a specified death).He died a hero's death.They died a thousand deaths.
      7. (intransitive, figuratively) To yearn intensely.
        • 1598, Shakespeare, Much Ado About Nothing, Act III, Scene II:Yes, and his ill conditions; and in despite of all, dies for him.
        • 2004 Paul Joseph Draus, Consumed in the city: observing tuberculosis at century's end - Page 168I could see that he was dying, dying for a cigarette, dying for a fix maybe, dying for a little bit of freedom, but trapped in a hospital bed and a sick body.
      8. (intransitive, idiomatic) To be utterly cut off by family or friends, as if dead.The day our sister eloped, she died to our mother.
      9. (intransitive, figuratively) To become spiritually dead; to lose hope.He died a little inside each time she refused to speak to him.
      10. (intransitive, colloquial) To be mortified or shocked by a situation.If anyone sees me wearing this ridiculous outfit, I'll die.
      11. (intransitive, of a machine) to stop working, to break down.My car died in the middle of the freeway this morning.
      12. (intransitive, of a computer program) To abort, to terminate (as an error condition).
      13. To perish; to cease to exist; to become lost or extinct.
        • Spectatorletting the secret die within his own breast
        • TennysonGreat deeds cannot die.
      14. To sink; to faint; to pine; to languish, with weakness, discouragement, love, etc.
        • Bible, 1 Samuel xxv. 37His heart died within, and he became as a stone.
      15. To become indifferent; to cease to be subject.to die to pleasure or to sin
      16. (architecture) To disappear gradually in another surface, as where mouldings are lost in a sloped or curved face.
      17. To become vapid, flat, or spiritless, as liquor.
      18. (of a stand-up comedian or a joke) To fail to evoke laughter from the audience.Then there was that time I died onstage in Montreal...

    Synonyms

    Derived terms

    Terms derived from die

    Related terms

    Origin 2

    From Middle English dee, from Old French de (Modern French dé), from Latin datum, from datus ("given"), the past participle of dare ("to give"), from Proto-Indo-European *deh₃- ("to lay out, to spread out").

    Noun

    die

    (plural dies or dice)
    1. (plural: dice) A polyhedron, usually a cube, with numbers or symbols on each side and used in games of chance.
      • 1748. David Hume. . In: Wikisource. Wikimedia: 2007. § 46.If a die were marked with one figure or number of spots on four sides, and with another figure or number of spots on the two remaining sides, it would be more probable, that the former would turn up than the latter;
    2. (plural: dies) The cubical part of a pedestal, a plinth.
    3. (plural: dies) A device for cutting into a specified shape.
    4. A device used to cut an external screw thread. (Internal screw threads are cut with a tap.)
    5. (plural: dies) A mold for forming metal or plastic objects.
    6. (plural: dies) An embossed device used in stamping coins and medals.
    7. (electronics) (plural: dice or dies) An oblong chip fractured from a semiconductor wafer engineered to perform as an independent device or integrated circuit.
    8. Any small cubical or square body.
      • Wattswords ... pasted upon little flat tablets or dies
    9. (obsolete) That which is, or might be, determined, by a throw of the die; hazard; chance.
      • SpenserSuch is the die of war.

    Usage notes

    The game of dice is singular. Thus in "Dice is a game played with dice," the first occurrence is singular, the second occurrence is plural. Otherwise, using the plural dice as a singular instead of die is considered incorrect by most authorities, but has come into widespread use.

    Derived terms

    Anagrams

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