death knell

noun

1. a harbinger of the end, death, or destruction of something.
2. passing bell.

death knell

noun

1. something that heralds death or destruction
2. a bell rung to announce a death

Idioms and Phrases

Something that indicates impending failure, as in His low scores sounded the death knell for his ambitions . The noun knell , used for the ringing of a bell since at least a.d. 1000, is rarely heard today except in this figurative phrase.

Example Sentences

Not everyone celebrated Accenture’s purchase of Droga’s agency at the time — to some it signaled a death knell for creativity.

From Digiday

Many reports detail how the pandemic sounded the death knell for the breakfast buffet as it brought the end of shared serving utensils.

From Vox

The government wanted to reduce labor and costs, but many growers view the law as a quality death knell.

From The Daily Beast

Last month, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton sounded what many considered to be the death knell for the SNC.

From The Daily Beast

They wanted to sound the death knell for the campaign, file their stories, and get out of Memphis as soon as possible.

From The Daily Beast

When you have somebody working for your campaign, like Grooms, who says you can't win, that is the death knell for a candidate.

From The Daily Beast

I now consider it the death knell for traditional publishing.

From The Daily Beast

It is not so now, for when the blacks revolted and drove their masters from the land, the death-knell of civilisation was sounded.

From Project Gutenberg

Would the step whose lightest footfall now made her heart leap, ever sound in her ear like a death-knell?

From Project Gutenberg

He was extremely perplexed, for to him it was as his death knell, and he commenced setting his house in order.

From Project Gutenberg

It made plaintive melody in the nocturnal stillness, bespeaking the death-knell perchance of many.

From Project Gutenberg

Amid the thundering of the guns from the citadel, the great bell of the Cathedral clanged the death knell to Arnold's hopes.

From Project Gutenberg