death on

Idioms

Very effective against; also, very fond of. For example, “He is a wonderful fielder and sure death on bunts” (Christy Mathewson, Pitching, 1912), or The boss is death on tardiness, or She's death on the latest fashions. [Slang; early 1800s]

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.

Never before had Americans, in the North or the South, experienced death on this scale.

From Literature

“And sometimes when I see people really locked into their emotions in a big way immediately after a death on TV, it doesn’t feel real to me. So, actually, Regency rules are representative of the way some people respond to grief.”

From Los Angeles Times

Jersey's health minister Tom Binet told the BBC that the first assisted death on the island, which has a population just over 100,000, could happen in 18 months.

From BBC

Mr. Llamazares’s writing is finely observational and often delicate: “My submachine-gun leaves a shadow of death on the ground like an elongated ear of wheat,” Ángel notices.

From The Wall Street Journal

Former teammates reacted to Moore's death on social media.

From Barron's

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023