Word.ws English Dictionary

die a thousand deaths

die a thousand deaths verb: to die many times over (usually as preferred over some other undesirable action or occurrence).

Verb

die a thousand deaths (third-person singular simple present dies a thousand deaths, present participle dying a thousand deaths, simple past and past participle died a thousand deaths)

  1. (rhetorical) To die many times over (usually as preferred over some other undesirable action or occurrence).
    • Mor[timer] iu[nior]. Crie quittance Madam then, & loue not him. / Qu[een]. No, rather will I die a thousand deaths, / And yet I loue in vaine, heele nere loue me.1594, Christopher Marlow[e], The Troublesome Raigne and Lamentable Death of Edward the Second, King of England: […], London: […] [Eliot’s Court Press] for Henry Bell, […], published 1622, →OCLC...
    • And I, most jocund, apt and willingly, / To do you rest, a thousand deaths would die.c. 1601–1602 (date written), William Shakespeare, “Twelfe Night, or What You Will”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and...
  2. (idiomatic) To suffer repeatedly (often mentally rather than physically); to suffer extreme embarrassment or anxiety.
    • [S]ince I knovv no greater Pleaſure than the Love of you, I ſhould too vvillingly run the Riſque of any Diſadvantage that could happen by it. I die a thouſand Deaths every Hour, and ſtill revive, to die them over again: Adieu.1735, Sophia, “A Letter from a Nun in Portugal, to a Gentleman in France”, in Alexander Pope, Mr Pope’s Literary Correspondence, volume III, London: […] E[dmund] Curll, […], →OCLC, page 89
    • [H]is enormous wealth yielded him no happiness, his suspicious soul feared a traitoress in each of his beautiful attendants, he trusted no one but his chief-councillor, Sir Small-grove, and while waiting for the just retribution he knew must sooner or later follow his crime, died a thousand deaths.1884, Tamenaga Shunsui, chapter 12, in Edward Greey, Shiuichiro Saito, transl., The Loyal Ronins, New York: G. P. Putnam’s Sons, page 81

Forms of die a thousand deaths

third-person singular presentdies a thousand deaths
present participledying a thousand deaths
past participledied a thousand deaths
pastdied a thousand deaths

Questions about die a thousand deaths

What does die a thousand deaths mean?
Die a thousand deaths means to die many times over (usually as preferred over some other undesirable action or occurrence).
What part of speech is die a thousand deaths?
Die a thousand deaths is a verb.
What is the past tense of die a thousand deaths?
The past tense of die a thousand deaths is died a thousand deaths.

Words near die a thousand deaths in the dictionary

  1. didynamous
  2. didynamy
  3. didysprosium
  4. die
  5. die a death
  6. die a thousand deaths
  7. die and go to heaven
  8. die away
  9. die back
  10. die bonder
  11. die bonders

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: die a thousand deaths (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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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-au-die a thousand deaths.ogg.

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