deathlike
Americanadjective
Etymology
Origin of deathlike
1540–50; death + -like; compare Old English dēathlīc deathly
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.
But the biggest draw might be the deathlike stench when they open.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 10, 2026
If you know anything about Burton’s movies, you know that they tend to feature characters who embody all the qualities of a sickly Victorian-era child: waifish, sunken doe-eye and gaunt faces with a deathlike pallor.
From Salon ● Sep. 15, 2024
Failing to turn friendship with an aristocratic young woman into something more, a despondent Guy wills himself into a deathlike sleep, eventually awakening in a seemingly idyllic socialist future.
From Washington Post ● Mar. 24, 2021
In the US, one writer observed: “The very face of nature seemed to be shrouded in a deathlike gloom.”
From The Guardian ● Mar. 6, 2021
I knew only that I would grow heavy with the burden, and one day deathlike pains would grip me until the creature sprang from my loins and cried to be cared for.
From "Ophelia" by Lisa Klein
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.
