die

The cubical part of a pedestal; a plinth.

Adverb

  1. per day
    • Clozapine 100 mg die a.m.

Origin

Borrowed from Latin die (“[in a] day”), locative of Latin dies (“day”).

Forms

dye

Related

adjournment sine die de die ad diem de die in diem sine die

Noun Entry 2

  1. The cubical part of a pedestal; a plinth.
  2. A device for cutting into a specified shape.
  3. A device used to cut an external screw thread. (Internal screw threads are cut with a tap.)
  4. A mold for forming metal or plastic objects.
  5. An embossed device used in stamping coins and medals.
  6. An oblong chip fractured from a semiconductor wafer engineered to perform as an independent device or integrated circuit.
    • The number of dies per wafer is basically the area of the wafer divided by the area of the die. - 2002, John L. Hennessy, David A. Patterson, Computer Architecture: A Quantitative Approach, Elsevier, →ISBN, page 19:
    • Once the wafer has undergone the wafer-probe test, it is separated into individual dice by sawing or scribing and breaking. The dice are visually inspected, sorted, and readied for assembly into packages. - 2009, Paul...
  7. Any small cubical or square body.
    • Some young creatures have learnt their letters and syllables, and the pronouncing and spelling of words, by having them pasted or written upon many little flat tablets or dies. - 1741, I[saac] Watts, The Improvement of...

Origin

From Middle English dee, from Old French de (Modern French dé), from Latin datum, from datus (“given”), the past participle of dō (“to give”), from Proto-Indo-European *deh₃- (“to lay out, to spread out”). Doublet of datum. Replaced Old English tasul, tesul (“die”), from Latin tessella (“die, cube”).

Forms

dies dye

Noun Entry 3

  1. An isohedral polyhedron, usually a cube, with numbers or symbols on each side and thrown in games of chance.
    • Most dice are six-sided.
    • I rolled the die and moved 2 spaces on the board.
    • If a Dye were mark’d with one Figure or Number of Spots on four Sides, and with another Figure or Number of Spots on the two remaining Sides, ’twould be more probable, that the former ſhould turn up than the latter; -...
  2. That which is, or might be, determined, by a throw of the die; hazard; chance.
    • […]For th'equall die of warre he well did know. - 1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book II, Canto V”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC, stanza 13, page 249:

Forms

dice dies dye

Synonyms

cube of chance cube of fortune

Derived

beer die cocked die coin die counterdie d10 d100 d1000 d12 d20 d4 d6 d66 d666 d8 die bonder die cap die-cast die-casting die-cut die cutting die grinder dieless dielike diemaker

Noun alt of, obsolete

  1. Obsolete spelling of dye.
    • He hath carried his friendship to this man to a blameable length, by too long concealing facts of the blackest die. - 1749, Henry Fielding, Tom Jones:

Origin

Variant spelling.

Forms

dies dye

Verb Entry 5

  1. To stop living; to become dead; to undergo death.
    • Returne with ſpeed, time paſſeth ſwift away, Our life is fraile, and we may dye to day. - c. 1587–1588 (date written), [Christopher Marlowe], Tamburlaine the Great. […] The First Part […], 2nd edition, part 1, London:...
    • The cheeks drop in; the body bows; Man dies: nor is there hope in dust: […] - 1850, [Alfred, Lord Tennyson], “Canto XXXV”, in In Memoriam, London: Edward Moxon, […], →OCLC, page 54:

    1. followed by of as an indication of direct cause; general use:

      • He died of malaria.
      • "What did she die of, Work'us?" said Noah. "Of a broken heart, some of our old nurses told me," replied Oliver[…]. - 1838, Boz [pseudonym; Charles Dickens], chapter 6, in Oliver Twist; […], volume (please specify...
      • In 1971 or 72, Mom's sister Carolyn Weimer died of breast cancer. - 2000, Stephen King, On Writing, Pocket Books, published 2002, page 85:

    2. followed by from as an indication of direct cause; general use, though somewhat more common in the context of medicine or the sciences:

      • He died from heart failure.
      • She lived several weeks; but afterwards she died from epilepsy, to which malady she had been previously subject. - 1865 March 4, British Medical Journal, page 213:
      • "Or all of them will die from the plague. Even if most of the candidates succumb […]" - 2007, Frank Herbert, Kevin J. Anderson, Sandworms of Dune, Tor, published 2007, page 191:

    3. followed by for; often expressing wider contextual motivations, though sometimes indicating direct causes:

      • He died for the one he loved.
      • 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. - 1961, Joseph Heller,...
      • Less than three days later, Johnson lapsed into a coma in his jail cell and died for lack of insulin. - 2003, Tara Herivel, Paul Wright, editors, Prison Nation, Routledge, page 187:

    4. (now rare) followed by with as an indication of direct cause:

      • 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. - 1598–1599 (first performance), William...
      • And there were some who died with fevers, which at some seasons of the year was very frequent in the land. - 1830, Joseph Smith, The Book of Mormon, Richards, published 1854, page 337:

    5. (now sometimes proscribed) followed by to as an indication of direct cause (like from):

      • I can't believe I just died to a turret!
      • Dr Thomas concluded she had died to a blow to the head, which led to a bleed on the brain, probably a fall and had hit her head hard on the wooden bedpost, as there was blood on the bedpost. - 2014, S. J. Groves, The...

    6. (still current) followed by with as an indication of manner:

      • She died with dignity.

    7. (in bare form) to die in a certain form.

      • Will I die a happy man?
  2. To (stop living and) undergo (a specified death).
    • He died a hero's death.
    • They died a thousand deaths.
    • […] he chose instead to suffer even greater personal pain, with unimaginable fortitude and resolve, albeit for a shorter time. Thus he died a small death, in order to benefit the living. Similarly, a small and voluntary...
  3. To lose or be eliminated from a game, particularly with a deathlike animation.
    • Whenever my brother dies, he ragequits.
    • Of course, Nazis are not present in this game. Instead, we have animals that will try to cover you with dirt. As soon as you get too dirty, you will die. - 1995, “Slobzone”, in Coming Soon! magazine (video game review),...
    • Oh look, I just died.[…]I missed that jump again! That was dumb! Hey, I just died on the same freakin' Zinger. - 2009, Brian Sulpher, 9:15–9:30 from the start, in Onto Doom And Gloom (video game playthrough), via...
  4. To yearn intensely.
    • I'm really dying to eat in that new restaurant.
    • I'm dying for a piss.
    • Yes, and his ill conditions; and in despite of all, dies for him. - 1598–1599 (first performance), William Shakespeare, “Much Adoe about Nothing”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First...
  5. To be or become hated or utterly ignored or cut off, as if dead.
    • The day our sister eloped, she died to our mother.
    • "My dad […] beat us until we couldn't sit down." […] "What about your mother?" […] "She's alive. […] My aunt visits her once a year, but I don't ask about my mother. She died to me the day she chose my father over...
    • "You haven't been my son since you were ten years old. That boy died to me the day he ran away. I don't know you. You are merely a shell that resembles someone I used to know, but you are dead to me. You are the bringer...
  6. To become spiritually dead; to lose hope.
    • He died a little inside each time she refused to speak to him.
    • Do you know that I went down / To the ground / Landed on both my broken-hearted knees... / […]I didn't even cry / 'Cause pieces of me had already died - 2011, Ingrid Michaelson, “Ghost”, in Human Again:
    • Made it out alive, but I think I lost it Said that I was fine, said it from the coffin Remember how I died when you started walking? That's my life, that's my life - 2024, Gracie Abrams, Audrey Hobert, “That's So True”,...
  7. To be mortified or shocked by a situation.
    • If anyone sees me wearing this ridiculous outfit, I'll die.
  8. To be so overcome with emotion or laughter as to be incapacitated.
    • When I found out my two favorite musicians would be recording an album together, I literally planned my own funeral arrangements and died.
    • I literally died when I saw that. - 1976, an anchorman on Channel Five in California, quoted in Journal and Newsletter [of the] California Classical Association, Northern Section
  9. To stop working; to break down or otherwise lose "vitality".
    • My car died in the middle of the freeway this morning.
    • Sorry I couldn't call you. My phone died.
    • My battery died and my charger was at home.
  10. To abort, to terminate (as an error condition).
  11. To expire at the end of the session of a legislature without having been brought to a vote.
    • The proposed gas tax died after the powerful rural senator refused to let it out of committee.
  12. To perish; to cease to exist; to become lost or extinct.
    • letting the secret die within his own breast - 1714 September 25 (Gregorian calendar), [Joseph Addison; Richard Steele et al.], “TUESDAY, September 15, 1714”, in The Spectator, number 594; republished in Alexander...
    • Great deeds cannot die. - 1847, Alfred Tennyson, “(please specify the page number, or |part=Prologue, I to VII, or conclusion)”, in The Princess: A Medley, London: Edward Moxon, […], →OCLC:
    • Through all the Worlds are sounds, the noises of moving, and the echoes of voices and song; but upon the River is no sound ever heard, for there all echoes die. - 1905, Lord Dunsany [i.e., Edward Plunkett, 18th Baron of...

Origin

From Middle English deyen, probably from Old Norse deyja, from Proto-Germanic *dawjaną (“to die”). Displaced native Old English sweltan, whence Modern English swelt, and Old English steorfan, whence modern starve.

Forms

dies dying died no-table-tags glossary die diest diedst dieth - dye

Synonyms

assume room temperature bite the dust bite the big one buy the farm check out code cross over cross the river decompose dematerialize expire succumb give up the ghost pass pass away pass on be no more meet one's maker be a stiff push up the daisies hop off the twig kick the bucket shuffle off this mortal coil join the choir invisible

Antonyms

breathe live subsist survive be born germinate sprout come back to life reincarnate rise from the dead

Hyponyms

bleed out drown overdose sleep with the fishes stifle suffocate

Related

dead death buried bury kill List of expressions related to death

Derived

be dying for cross my heart and hope to die die a death die and go to heaven die a thousand deaths die-away die away die back die-die die down die hard die-hard diehard die how one lived die-in die in a fire die in harness die in one's shoes die in the arse die in the ass die in the last ditch die just how one lived die just like one lived die just the way one lived

Verb alt of, obsolete

  1. Obsolete spelling of dye.
    • Also no dyer shall die any cloth, except he die the cloth and the list with one colour, without tacking any bulrushes or such like thing upon the lists, upon pain to forfeit 40 s. for every cloth. And no person shall...
    • To die wool with madder, prepare a fresh liquor, and when the water is come to a heat to bear the hand, put in half a pound of the finest grape madder for each pound of wool; - 1813, James Haigh, The Dier's Assistant in...
    • To die Wool and Woollen Cloths of a Blue Colour. One part of indigo, in four parts concentrated sulphuric acid, dissolved; then add one part of dry carbonate of potash, [...] - 1827, John Shepard, The artist &...

Forms

dies dying died dye

Synonyms

assume room temperature auger in be called home be gathered to one's fathers be like the the One be no more be with Jesus be with the Lord bite the big one bite the biscuit bite the dust buy the farm buy it cark it cash in cash in one's chips check out close one's eyes for the last time code conk out croak cross over cross rainbow bridge cross the Great Divide

Antonyms

breathe live subsist survive be born germinate sprout come back to life reincarnate rise from the dead

Hyponyms

bleed out drown overdose sleep with the fishes stifle suffocate

Related

dead death kill List of expressions related to death