die

Etymology 1

From Middle English deyen, from Old English dīeġan and Old Norse deyja, both from Proto-Germanic *dawjaną (“to die”). Displaced Old English sweltan, whence Modern English swelt.

verb

1. (intransitive) To stop living; to become dead; to undergo death.
   1. followed by of; general use:
      He died of malaria.
      In 1971 or 72, Mom's sister Carolyn Weimer died of breast cancer. 2000, Stephen King, On Writing, Pocket Books, published 2002, page 85
   2. followed by from; general use, though somewhat more common in the context of medicine or the sciences:
      He died from heart failure.
      She lived several weeks; but afterwards she died from epilepsy, to which malady she had been previously subject. 4 Mar 1865, British Medical Journal, page 213
      Or all of them will die from the plague. Even if most of the candidates succumb […] 2007, Frank Herbert, Kevin J. Anderson, Sandworms of Dune, Tor, published 2007, page 191
   3. followed by for; often expressing wider contextual motivations, though sometimes indicating direct causes:
      He died for the one he loved.
      Englishmen are dying for England, Americans are dying for America, Germans are dying for Germany, Russians are dying for Russia. There are now fifty or sixty countries fighting in this war. 1961, Joseph Heller, Catch-22, Simon & Schuster, published 1999, page 232
      Less than three days later, Johnson lapsed into a coma in his jail cell and died for lack of insulin. 2003, Tara Herivel, Paul Wright, editors, Prison Nation, Routledge, page 187
   4. (now rare) followed by with as an indication of direct cause:
      And there were some who died with fevers, which at some seasons of the year was very frequent in the land. 1830, Joseph Smith, The Book of Mormon, Richards, published 1854, page 337
   5. (uncommon, nonstandard outside video games) followed by to as an indication of direct cause (like from):
      I can't believe I just died to a turret!
      Dr Thomas concluded she had died to a blow to the head, which led to a bleed on the brain, probably a fall and had hit her head hard on the wooden bedpost, as there was blood on the bedpost. 2014, S. J. Groves, The Darker Side to Dr Carter, page 437
   6. (still current) followed by with as an indication of manner:
      She died with dignity.
2. (transitive) To (stop living and) undergo (a specified death).
   He died a hero's death.
   They died a thousand deaths.
   […] he chose instead to suffer even greater personal pain, with unimaginable fortitude and resolve, albeit for a shorter time. Thus he died a small death, in order to benefit the living. Similarly, a small and voluntary death was died by Socrates. 2019, Lou Marinoff, On Human Conflict: The Philosophical Foundations of War and Peace, Rowman & Littlefield, page 452
3. (video games, slang) To lose a game.
   Of course, Nazis are not present in this game. Instead, we have animals that will try to cover you with dirt. As soon as you get too dirty, you will die. 1995, “Slobzone”, in Coming Soon! magazine (video game review)
   Whenever my brother dies, he ragequits.
4. (intransitive, figurative) To yearn intensely.
   I'm dying for a packet of crisps.
   I'm dying for a piss.
   I could see that he was dying, dying for a cigarette, dying for a fix maybe, dying for a little bit of freedom, but trapped in a hospital bed and a sick body. 2004, Paul Joseph Draus, Consumed in the city: observing tuberculosis at century's end, page 168
5. (intransitive, uncommon, idiomatic) To be or become hated or utterly ignored or cut off, as if dead.
   The day our sister eloped, she died to our mother.
   "My dad […] beat us until we couldn't sit down." […] "What about your mother?" […] "She's alive. […] My aunt visits her once a year, but I don't ask about my mother. She died to me the day she chose my father over protecting us." Luke's voice hitched with emotion. 2015, Emily Duvall, Inclusions, page 150
   "You haven't been my son since you were ten years old. That boy died to me the day he ran away. I don't know you. You are merely a shell that resembles someone I used to know, but you are dead to me. You are the bringer of pain and death. Leave me be. Leave me with my son, Jyosh." "Mother..." Barlun pleaded. 2017, Mike Hoornstra, Descent into the Maelstrom, page 366
6. (intransitive, figurative) To become spiritually dead; to lose hope.
   He died a little inside each time she refused to speak to him.
   Do you know that I went down / To the ground / Landed on both my broken-hearted knees... / […]I didn't even cry / 'Cause pieces of me had already died 2011, Ingrid Michaelson (lyrics and music), “Ghost”, in Human Again
7. (intransitive, colloquial, hyperbolic) To be mortified or shocked by a situation.
   If anyone sees me wearing this ridiculous outfit, I'll die.
8. (intransitive, figurative, hyperbolic) To be so overcome with emotion or laughter as to be incapacitated.
   When I found out my two favorite musicians would be recording an album together, I literally planned my own funeral arrangements and died.
   I literally died when I saw that. 1976, an anchorman on Channel Five in California, quoted in Journal and Newsletter [of the] California Classical Association, Northern Section
9. (intransitive, of a machine) To stop working; to break down or otherwise lose "vitality".
   My car died in the middle of the freeway this morning.
   Sorry I couldn't call you. My phone died.
   My battery died and my charger was at home.
10. (intransitive, of a computer program) To abort, to terminate (as an error condition).
11. (intransitive, of a legislative bill or resolution) To expire at the end of the session of a legislature without having been brought to a vote.
    The proposed gas tax died after the powerful rural senator refused to let it out of committee.
12. To perish; to cease to exist; to become lost or extinct.
13. To sink; to faint; to pine; to languish, with weakness, discouragement, love, etc.
    When the truth is found to be lies / And all the joy within you dies / Don't you want somebody to love? / Don't you need somebody to love? 1965, Darby Slick, “Somebody to Love”, in Surrealistic Pillow, performed by Jefferson Airplane, published 1967
14. (often with "to") To become indifferent; to cease to be subject.
    to die to pleasure or to sin
15. (architecture) To disappear gradually in another surface, as where mouldings are lost in a sloped or curved face.
16. To become vapid, flat, or spiritless, as liquor.
17. (of a stand-up comedian or a joke) To fail to evoke laughter from the audience.
    Then there was that time I died onstage in Montreal...

Etymology 2

From Middle English dee, from Old French de (Modern French dé), from Latin datum, from datus (“given”), the past participle of dō (“to give”), from Proto-Indo-European *deh₃- (“to lay out, to spread out”). Doublet of datum.

noun

1. The cubical part of a pedestal; a plinth.
2. A device for cutting into a specified shape.
3. A device used to cut an external screw thread. (Internal screw threads are cut with a tap.)
4. A mold for forming metal or plastic objects.
5. An embossed device used in stamping coins and medals.
6. (semiconductors, plural also dice) An oblong chip fractured from a semiconductor wafer engineered to perform as an independent device or integrated circuit.
   The number of dies per wafer is basically the area of the wafer divided by the area of the die. 2002, John L. Hennessy, David A. Patterson, Computer Architecture: A Quantitative Approach, Elsevier, page 19
   Once the wafer has undergone the wafer-probe test, it is separated into individual dice by sawing or scribing and breaking. The dice are visually inspected, sorted, and readied for assembly into packages. 2009, Paul R. Gray, Analysis and Design of Analog Integrated Circuits, 5th edition, John Wiley & Sons, page 159
7. Any small cubical or square body.

noun

1. An isohedral polyhedron, usually a cube, with numbers or symbols on each side and used in games of chance.
   Most dice are six-sided.
   I rolled the die and moved 2 spaces on the board.
   When you roll two dies—or three, or four—the odds of obtaining a specific number becomes complex in a logarithmic progression. 2000, Richard Shoup, edited by Barry Lenson, Take Control Of Your Life: How to Control Fate, Luck, Chaos, Karma, and Life’s Other Unruly Forces, McGraw-Hill, page 42
   We roll two dies repeatedly until we get the first double. 2012, Rinaldo B. Schinazi, “Probability Space”, in Probability with Statistical Applications, 2nd edition, Birkhäuser, “Independent Events”, “Exercises”, page 16
   Roll two dies 24 times. What is the probability of rolling at least one double 6? 2014, Ionut Florescu, Ciprian A. Tudor, Handbook of Probability, John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
   When this creature enters the battlefield, roll a six-sided die. You gain life equal to the result. Dec 8 2017, “Adorable Kitten”, in Unstable, Wizards of the Coast
2. (obsolete) That which is, or might be, determined, by a throw of the die; hazard; chance.

Etymology 3

Variant spelling.

noun

1. Obsolete spelling of dye
   He hath carried his friendship to this man to a blameable length, by too long concealing facts of the blackest die. 1749, Henry Fielding, Tom Jones

verb

1. Obsolete spelling of dye
   Also no dyer shall die any cloth, except he die the cloth and the list with one colour, without tacking any bulrushes or such like thing upon the lists, upon pain to forfeit 40 s. for every cloth. And no person shall put to sale any cloth deceitfully dyed, 1739, John Cay, An abridgment of the publick statutes in force and use from Magna Charta, in the ninth year of King Henry III, to the eleventh year of his present Majesty King George II, inclusive, Drapery, XXVII. Sect. 16
   To die wool with madder, prepare a fresh liquor, and when the water is come to a heat to bear the hand, put in half a pound of the finest grape madder for each pound of wool; 1813, James Haigh, The Dier's Assistant in the Art of Dying Wool and Woollen Goods
   To die Wool and Woollen Cloths of a Blue Colour. One part of indigo, in four parts concentrated sulphuric acid, dissolved; then add one part of dry carbonate of potash, … 1827, John Shepard, The artist & tradesman's guide: embracing some leading facts