die
1 Americanverb (used without object)
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to cease to live; undergo the complete and permanent cessation of all vital functions; become dead.
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(of something inanimate) to cease to exist.
The laughter died on his lips.
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to lose force, strength, or active qualities.
Superstitions die slowly.
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to cease to function; stop.
The motor died.
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to be no longer subject; become indifferent.
to die to worldly matters.
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to pass gradually; fade or subside gradually (usually followed by away, out, ordown ).
The storm slowly died down.
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Theology. to lose spiritual life.
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to faint or languish.
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to suffer as if fatally.
I'm dying of boredom!
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to pine with desire, love, longing, etc..
I'm dying to see my home again.
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to desire or want keenly or greatly.
I'm dying for a cup of coffee.
verb phrase
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die off to die one after another until the number is greatly reduced.
Her friends are dying off.
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die out
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to cease to exist; become extinct.
Both lines of the family died out before the turn of the century.
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to die away; fade; subside.
The roar of the engines died out as the rocket vanished into the clouds.
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die down to become calm or quiet; subside.
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die away (of a sound) to become weaker or fainter and then cease.
The hoofbeats gradually died away.
idioms
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to die for, stunning; remarkable.
That dress is to die for.
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die standing up, (of a performance) to be received with silence rather than applause.
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die hard,
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to die only after a bitter struggle.
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to give way or surrender slowly or with difficulty.
Childhood beliefs die hard.
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never say die, never give up hope; never abandon one's efforts.
noun
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Machinery.
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any of various devices for cutting or forming material in a press or a stamping or forging machine.
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a hollow device of steel, often composed of several pieces to be fitted into a stock, for cutting the threads of bolts or the like.
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one of the separate pieces of such a device.
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a steel block or plate with small conical holes through which wire, plastic rods, etc., are drawn.
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an engraved stamp for impressing a design upon some softer material, as in coining money.
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singular of dice.
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Architecture. dado.
verb (used with object)
idioms
verb
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(of an organism or its cells, organs, etc) to cease all biological activity permanently
she died of pneumonia
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(of something inanimate) to cease to exist; come to an end
the memory of her will never die
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to lose strength, power, or energy, esp by degrees
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to become calm or quiet; subside
the noise slowly died down
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to stop functioning
the engine died
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to languish or pine, as with love, longing, etc
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informal (usually foll by of) to be nearly overcome (with laughter, boredom, etc)
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theol to lack spiritual life within the soul, thus separating it from God and leading to eternal punishment
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(tr) to undergo or suffer (a death of a specified kind) (esp in phrases such as die a saintly death )
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(foll by to) to become indifferent or apathetic (to)
to die to the world
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informal never give up
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to cease to exist after resistance or a struggle
old habits die hard
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to die while still working or active, prior to retirement
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to be eager or desperate (for something or to do something)
I'm dying to see the new house
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informal highly desirable
a salary to die for
noun
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a shaped block of metal or other hard material used to cut or form metal in a drop forge, press, or similar device
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a tool of metal, silicon carbide, or other hard material with a conical hole through which wires, rods, or tubes are drawn to reduce their diameter
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an internally-threaded tool for cutting external threads Compare tap 2
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a casting mould giving accurate dimensions and a good surface to the object cast See also die-cast
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architect the dado of a pedestal, usually cubic
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another name for dice
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perfectly honest
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the decision that commits a person irrevocably to an action has been taken
Usage
What is a basic definition of die? Die is a verb that means to stop living, to stop existing, or to stop functioning. Die has several other senses as a verb and a noun. When somebody dies, they are no longer alive. They have become dead. All living things will eventually die. Someone can die from disease, violence, or anything else that causes their vital organs (heart, brain, liver, kidneys, and lungs) to stop working.
- Real-life examples: Everyone who is dead has died. Plants die when they don’t get enough sunlight and water. Animals die from many of the same things as humans. Antibiotics are designed to cause disease-causing bacteria to die.
- Used in a sentence: I forgot to water my sunflower, so it died.
- Used in a sentence: My dreams of being a rock star will never die.
- Used in a sentence: I managed to upload all of my files before my laptop died.
Synonym Usage
Die, pass away ( pass on; pass ), perish mean to relinquish life. To die is to become dead from any cause and in any circumstances. It is the simplest, plainest, and most direct word for this idea, and is used figuratively of anything that has once displayed activity: An echo, flame, storm, rumor dies. Pass away (or pass on or pass ) is a commonly used euphemism implying a continuation of life after death: Grandfather passed away ( passed on or passed ). Perish, a more literary term, implies death under harsh circumstances such as hunger, cold, neglect, etc.; figuratively, perish connotes utter extinction: Hardship caused many pioneers to perish. Ancient Egyptian civilization has perished.
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of die1
First recorded in 1150–1200; Middle English dien, deien, from Old Norse deyja; cf. dead, death
Origin of die2
First recorded in 1300–50; Middle English de (in early Modern English taking the vowel of the plural form dice ), from Old French de(i), presumably from Latin datum “given” (neuter past participle of dare “to give”), perhaps in the derivative sense “put, placed,” hence “played, cast”
Explanation
Your friend would be furious if you promised you would water his plants while he was out of town, and then let his favorite fern die. To die is to expire, or to cease to be alive. The verb to die means "to stop living," and it's also used to exaggerate a need or want, like when you say, "I would die to have those shoes." When die is a noun, it means a metal-cutting tool or the single form of dice: "Hand me the die, it's my turn to roll." When you're talking about permanently staining or coloring something, you have to use the word dye.
Vocabulary lists containing die
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
Sooner or later, he believes "corals will die out without intervention".
From Barron's ● Jul. 29, 2026
Graham quipped in his final days that he couldn’t die now because he was close to achieving both goals.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 28, 2026
He added that to control the blaze, it would need to rain "heavily for three days" or require firefighters steering it towards a place where it can die down on its own, like the sea.
From BBC ● Jul. 27, 2026
"Having so many die in just two years was unprecedented."
From Science Daily ● Jul. 26, 2026
And so I went to work each day in the quarry, a bone-breaking job that killed heartier men than me, and waited to die.
From "Not Nothing" by Gayle Forman
After his success in Makerfield and then the Labour leadership contest, will Andy Burnham fancy another throw of the dice?
From BBC ● Jul. 21, 2026
Choosing to take Social Security at 62 versus 70 is a roll of the dice.
From MarketWatch ● Jul. 15, 2026
And this time the roll of the dice didn’t work, with Turkey getting its only win of the tournament on its last touch of the World Cup.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 26, 2026
That, and the fact that many of the people making these movies and shows rolled 20-sided dice with their pals back in the day.
From Salon ● Jun. 24, 2026
But when he flicked the computerized dice, his luck hit a brick wall.
From "Escape from Mr. Lemoncello's Library" by Chris Grabenstein
Radiocarbon dating works by measuring carbon-14, a radioactive form of carbon that gradually disappears after an organism dies.
From Science Daily ● Jul. 28, 2026
In some cases, relatives flee homes when a family member dies, without informing authorities, leaving highly infectious corpses unattended for days.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 16, 2026
Fed officials might be willing to wait, however, to see if the Mideast conflict dies down and reduces the pressure on energy prices.
From MarketWatch ● Jul. 15, 2026
When Faye’s beloved college professor dies suddenly and she’s asked to speak at a memorial ceremony, nostalgia and flattery make her drop everything and hightail it back to the leafy northeastern college town.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 13, 2026
When someone you know dies, it’s your job to keep on living.
From Each Little Bird That Sings by Deborah Wiles
"Thirteen people have died," Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi said a day after the tremor that registered at the highest level on Japan's Shindo scale of seismic shaking.
From Barron's ● Jul. 29, 2026
She died in hospital during surgery, after exchanging "heartfelt 'I love you's with her eldest daughter", her family said in the GoFundMe page launched after her death.
From BBC ● Jul. 28, 2026
Betye Saar, the groundbreaking assemblage artist who helped redefine American art and kickstart the Black women’s movement, died Monday.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 28, 2026
Two months before Alexis died in May 2000, Lieberson was informed that she herself had cancer, and later underwent a double lumpectomy.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 28, 2026
Purnell is the private school where Jonah used to go before his dad died.
From "Keeping Pace" by Laurie Morrison
Are you living and dieing by weather forecasts?
From Time Magazine Archive
Coquets, and prudes, ought tew be compelled to hunt in couples, so that when the coquet haz wounded the game, the prude kan nuss the dieing viktim.
From The Complete Works of Josh Billings by Shaw, Henry W.
This summer, great death chanced in this land, manie dieing of the pestilence, wherewith sundrie places were infected.
From Chronicles (3 of 6): Historie of England (1 of 9) Henrie IV by Holinshed, Raphael
The hum buggs don’t generally live a grate while at once, but have the fackulty ov dieing in one place, and being suddenly born in another.
From The Complete Works of Josh Billings by Shaw, Henry W.
And ye mr of ye ship & some 6. of ye mariners dieing, it seemed they could not find ye bay, till after long seeking & beating aboute.
From Bradford's History of 'Plimoth Plantation' From the Original Manuscript. With a Report of the Proceedings Incident to the Return of the Manuscript to Massachusetts by Bradford, William
Related: ‘I am at a loss’: My brother is dying.
From MarketWatch ● Jul. 28, 2026
The next frontier could be building nuclear-powered ships in American shipyards, another administration goal as it looks for ways to revive the dying domestic shipbuilding sector.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 23, 2026
"It is no exaggeration to call this extreme heat a 'disaster' with many people being rushed to hospitals or even dying as a result of heatstroke," it said.
From Barron's ● Jul. 22, 2026
As the title suggests, “Out of Time” is less about the living city than the dying one, with a sliver of hope carved out of the ash, rubble and pyroclastic surge.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 22, 2026
The dog said that the humans loved the death policy, and they wanted to keep dying.
From "Kwame Crashes the Underworld" by Craig Kofi Farmer
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
