deathlings

Noun

deathling (plural deathlings)

1. A mortal; one who will die.
   • God gives and takes away your breath: What more have ye? Breath is your life, and life your soul; Ye have it warm from His kind hands: Then yield it back to the great Whole When He demands. Why, deathling, wilt thou long for Heaven?1872, Philip James Bailey, Festus: A Poem, page 281
2. A supernatural being associated with death, especially a child of death.
   • The interest of his realm had need That death should get a numerous breed; Young deathlings, who by practice made Proficient in their father's trade1860, Jonathan Swift, The Works of Jonathan Swift, page 442
3. (rare) A dead child.
   • In my mind's eye I gather the resident who did the tracheotomy, his patient with her collapsible veins, the nurse who said " Good," and, of course, the deathling in the bed.1986, San José Studies - Volumes 12-13, page 37