death sentence

Noun

death sentence (plural death sentences)

1. A decree that someone be put to death as a punishment for a crime; a sentence of execution.
   • Tyrion’s tears contain the symbolic weight of his whole life; he wouldn’t be here if not for Jaime, as he admits, and his last hope is to give the man who risked everything to help him survive the same chance. Tyrion knows it’s a death sentence from Daenerys to betray her in this way, but he no...2019 May 12, Alex McLevy, “Westeros faces a disastrous final battle on the penultimate Game of Thrones (newbies)”, in The A.V. Club, archived from the original on 15 May 2019
   • Comrades, here and now I pronounce the death sentence upon Snowball.1943 November – 1944 February (date written; published 1945 August 17), George Orwell [pseudonym; Eric Arthur Blair], Animal Farm […], London: Secker & Warburg, published May 1962, →OCLC
2. (figuratively) Anything that spells death.
   • Having the Huntington's gene is a death sentence.