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lysis (1877) the gradual reduction of the symptoms of a disease

to cheat the worms (b.1887) to recover from a serious illness

creaking gate (1854) an invalid who outlives an apparently healthier person (as a creaking gate hangs longest on the hinges)

… while others are less so (whatever their visitors think):

goodly-badly (Cumberland) of a sick person whose looks belie their illness

floccillation (1842) the action of a feverish patient in picking at the bedclothes during delirium

churchyard cough (1693) a cough that is likely to terminate in death

circling the drain (hospital jargon) a patient near death who refuses to give up the ghost

wag-at-the-wall (Jamaican English) a ghost that haunts the kitchen and moves backwards and forwards before the death of one of the family

LAST WORDS

Your time has come, and this is a journey with no return ticket:

thanatopsis (1816) the contemplation of death

viaticum (Latin 1562) Holy Communion given to a dying person

thratch (Scotland 1806) to gasp convulsively in the death-agony

dormition (1483) a peaceful and painless death

THE GOLDEN STAIRCASE

This final action of the body is also something that people prefer not to refer to directly, as the following euphemisms for dying attest:

buy the farm (US slang early 1900s)

climb the golden staircase (US slang late 1800s)

coil up one’s ropes (British naval slang)

stick one’s spoon in the wall (British slang 1800s)

meet one’s Waterloo (Australian slang)

go trumpet-cleaning (late 19C: the trumpeter being the angel Gabriel)

chuck seven (late 19C: as a dice-cube has no 7)

drop one’s leaf (c.1820)

take the everlasting knock (1889)

pass in one’s cheeks (b.1872)

DEATH BY HONEY

Not of course that illness is the only way to go:

buddle (Somerset) to suffocate in mud

burke (1829) to smother people in order to sell their bodies for dissection (after the notorious Edinburgh body-snatchers Burke and Hare)

scaphism (b.1913) an old Persian method of executing criminals by covering them with honey and letting the sun and the insects finish the job

A HEARTY JOKE

When hanging was the ultimate penalty in this country, as it was for many centuries, a particular kind of gloating black humour went along with the licensed murder of wicked people:

hemp cravat (late 18C) a hangman’s noose

to cry cockles (b.1811) to be hanged (from the noise made whilst being strangled) artichoke (underworld slang 1834) a hanging (a ‘hearty choke’)

horse’s nightcap (late 18C) the cap drawn over a criminal’s eyes at his hanging (also known as

Paddington spectacles (early 19C) from the execution of malefactors at Tyburn in the above parish)

keep an ironmonger’s shop by the side of a common (1780) to be hanged in chains sheriff’s picture frame (UK slang b.1811) the gallows

dismal ditty (c.1690) a psalm sung by a criminal just before his death at the gallows

DUST TO DUST

However you meet your end, it’s off to church for one last time:

ecopod (UK 1994) a coffin specially designed to be environmentally friendly

shillibeer (1835) a hearse with seats for mourners wheelicruise (Orkney Isles) a churchyard

boot hill (American West 19C) a graveyard (where the occupants died ‘with their boots on’ i.e. violently)

parentate (1620) to celebrate one’s parents’ funerals

KNOCKING-ON

Not that death is necessarily the end of your consequence on earth:

dustsceawung (Anglo-Saxon) a visit to a grave (‘a viewing of dust’)

carrion-crow man (Guyanese English) a man who canvasses business for an undertaker following a death

umest (1400) the coverlet of a bed, often claimed by a priest at the death of a parishioner

to add a stone to someone’s cairn (18C) to honour a person as much as possible after their death

memorial diamond (US slang 2001) a diamond created from carbon extracted from the remains of a cremated body

deodand (1523) an object that has been the direct cause of death of a human being (such as a boat from which a person has fallen and drowned) which