fate worse than death, a

1. A highly undesirable occurrence, a misfortune, as in Dean thinks driving daily during rush hour is a fate worse than death. Formerly applied quite seriously to a woman's loss of virginity, this idiom today is used hyperbolically and far more loosely. [1600s]

Example Sentences

For a moment, I felt sorry for the old, broken-down woman whose loneliness had turned her into a bruja—a fate worse than death, a fate I wouldn’t wish on anyone, least of all Mamá.

From Literature

This was the girl whom he had lightly condemned to a fate worse than death—a fate which he had pledged himself to compass by deceitfully gaining her love.

From Project Gutenberg