Deathwatch

3 definitions found

From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:

  Deathwatch \Death"watch`\ (?; 224), n.
     1. (Zool.)
        (a) A small beetle ({Anobium tessellatum} and other allied
            species). By forcibly striking its head against
            woodwork it makes a ticking sound, which is a call of
            the sexes to each other, but has been imagined by


            superstitious people to presage death.
        (b) A small wingless insect, of the family {Psocid[ae]},
            which makes a similar but fainter sound; -- called
            also {deathtick}.
            [1913 Webster]
  
                  She is always seeing apparitions and hearing
                  deathwatches.                     --Addison.
            [1913 Webster]
  
                  I did not hear the dog howl, mother, or the
                  deathwatch beat.                  --Tennyson.
            [1913 Webster]
  
     2. The guard set over a criminal before his execution.
        [1913 Webster]

From WordNet (r) 2.0 [wn]:

  deathwatch
       n 1: minute wingless psocopterous insects injurious to books and
            papers [syn: {booklouse}, {book louse}, {Liposcelis
            divinatorius}]
       2: bores through wood making a ticking sound popularly thought
          to presage death [syn: {deathwatch beetle}, {Xestobium
          rufovillosum}]

From Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0 [moby-thes]:

  31 Moby Thesaurus words for "deathwatch":
     agony, burial service, death agonies, death groan, death rattle,
     death struggle, death throes, deathbed, dirge, dying breath,
     eulogy, exequies, extreme unction, extremity, final extremity,
     funeral oration, funeral rites, last agony, last breath, last duty,
     last gasp, last honors, last offices, last rites, moribundity,
     obsequies, requiem, requiem mass, throes of death, viaticum,
     wake