at death's door

1. On the point of dying, very ill, as in Whenever she had a bad cold she acted as though she were at death's door. The association of death with an entry way was first made in English in the late 1300s, and the phrase itself dates from the mid-1500s. Today it is often used as an exaggeration of ill health.

Example Sentences

Madame closed her eyes and thrashed as if she were at death’s door.

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"She was at death's door, and she knew I could write, so she asked me to write her an elegy if the worst came to the worst."

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In August 2025, PIJ posted a video in which Mr Braslavski was seen crying and saying that he had run out of food and water, was unable to stand or walk, and was "at death's door".

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He says he is unable to stand or walk, and "is at death's door".

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“I was lucky. I lived,” said Amanda Zurawski, whose doctors in Texas waited until she was at death’s door and miscarrying at 18 weeks before they would perform an abortion.

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Related Words

• decaying www.thesaurus.com
• doomed 
• fading 
• moribund