die a thousand deaths
Word Rarity
Uncommon
Frequency: Zipf frequency 4.21 in modern English
27
Scrabble Score
18
Letters
3
Syllables
10
Unique Chars
Meaning
verb
To die many times over (usually as preferred over some other undesirable action or occurrence).
verb
To suffer repeatedly (often mentally rather than physically); to suffer extreme embarrassment or anxiety.
Example Sentences
- "Mor[timer] iu[nior]. Crie quittance Madam then, & loue not him. / Qu[een]. No, rather will I die a thousand deaths, / And yet I loue in vaine, heele nere loue me."
- "And I, most jocund, apt and willingly, / To do you rest, a thousand deaths would die."
- "[T]ruſt me, believe me, I will die a thouſand deaths ſooner than conſent to injure you, […]"
- "[S]ince I knovv no greater Pleaſure than the Love of you, I ſhould too vvillingly run the Riſque of any Diſadvantage that could happen by it. I die a thouſand Deaths every Hour, and ſtill revive, to die them over again: Adieu."
- "[H]is enormous wealth yielded him no happiness, his suspicious soul feared a traitoress in each of his beautiful attendants, he trusted no one but his chief-councillor, Sir Small-grove, and while waiting for the just retribution he knew must sooner or later follow his crime, died a thousand deaths."
- "As she looked in the mirror over the fireplace that she might settle her hat-pin straight, she noticed that in touching the china dog she had disturbed the mantle cloth, and in so doing had exposed her hoard of pawn-tickets. Thanks be to God I noticed that, had anyone come in I’d have died a thousand deaths."