Word.ws English Dictionary

debt of nature

debt of nature noun: death, seen as an obligation that all living creatures must eventually pay.

Noun

debt of nature

  1. (euphemistic) Death, seen as an obligation that all living creatures must eventually pay.
    • Ten years after he had seen his son married^([sic]), become a church member, and give up his carnal delights, old Deacon Smith paid the debt of nature. His last days he always called his best days.1850, T. S. Arthur, “Deacon Smith and his Violin”, in Sketches of Life and Character, Philadelphia: J. W. Bradley, →OCLC, page 76

Questions about debt of nature

What does debt of nature mean?
Debt of nature means death, seen as an obligation that all living creatures must eventually pay.
What part of speech is debt of nature?
Debt of nature is a noun.

Words near debt of nature in the dictionary

  1. debt instrument
  2. debt instruments
  3. debt obligation
  4. debt of honor
  5. debt of honour
  6. debt of nature
  7. debt release
  8. debt releases
  9. debt relief
  10. debt slave
  11. debt slaveries

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: debt of nature (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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