death rattle

Noun

death rattle (plural death rattles)

1. The raspy or gurgling sound sometimes made by a person while drawing in or expelling their final breaths before dying.
   • The death-rattle gurgled in the throat of his opponent; his arms fell heavily to his side.1840, William Makepeace Thackeray, chapter 14, in Catherine: A Story
   • George Martin had died as though in his sleep, so quietly that no one had even guessed. And what Peter had imagined to be his snores had really been the lonesome death rattle.1950, Jack Kerouac, The Town and the City, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, published 2001, →ISBN, page 476
2. (idiomatic) Activity by an entity (such as an individual, business or ideology) perceived as almost finished, especially if this activity appears weak or futile.
   • There is, however, an alternative view of this bleak period in transit's history. It is our thesis that the crisis is both the death rattle of outdated institutions for delivering transportation service and the painful birth of many new delivery systems.1982, Built Environment
   • Instead, after this introductory essay, my story begins with the death rattle of the American communist movement and the birth of the New Left.2013 September 13, Stanley Aronowitz, The Death and Rebirth of American Radicalism, Routledge, →ISBN, page 3
3. (broadly) The sound of a batsman’s stumps being broken, so called because this leads to the batsman’s dismissal.