Die (?), v. i. [imp. & p. p.Died (?); p. pr. & vb. n.Dying.] [OE. deyen, dien, of Scand. origin; cf. Icel. deyja; akin to Dan. döe, Sw. dö, Goth. diwan (cf. Goth. afd�jan to harass), OFries. d�ia to kill, OS. doian to die, OHG. touwen, OSlav. daviti to choke, Lith. dovyti to torment. Cf. Dead, Death.] 1. To pass from an animate to a lifeless state; to cease to live; to suffer a total and irreparable loss of action of the vital functions; to become dead; to expire; to perish; — said of animals and vegetables; often with of, by, with, from, and rarely for, before the cause or occasion of death; as, to die of disease or hardships; to die by fire or the sword; to die with horror at the thought.
To die by the roadside of grief and hunger. Macaulay.
She will die from want of care. Tennyson.
2. To suffer death; to lose life.
In due time Christ died for the ungodly. Rom. v. 6.
3. To perish in any manner; to cease; to become lost or extinct; to be extinguished.
Letting the secret die within his own breast. Spectator.
Great deeds can not die. Tennyson.
4. To sink; to faint; to pine; to languish, with weakness, discouragement, love, etc.
His heart died within, and he became as a stone. 1 Sam. xxv. 37.
The young men acknowledged, in love letters, that they died for Rebecca. Tatler.
5. To become indifferent; to cease to be subject; as, to die to pleasure or to sin.
6. To recede and grow fainter; to become imperceptible; to vanish; — often with out or away.
Blemishes may die away and disappear amidst the brightness. Spectator.
7. (Arch.) To disappear gradually in another surface, as where moldings are lost in a sloped or curved face.
8. To become vapid, flat, or spiritless, as liquor.
To die in the last ditch, to fight till death; to die rather than surrender.
“There is one certain way,” replied the Prince “ by which I can be sure never to see my country's ruin, — I will die in the last ditch.” Hume (Hist. of Eng.).
— To die out, to cease gradually; as, the prejudice has died out.
Syn. — To expire; decease; perish; depart; vanish.