waking up dead

Verb

wake up dead (third-person singular simple present wakes up dead, present participle waking up dead, simple past woke up dead, past participle woken up dead)

1. To die, particularly in one's sleep.
   • The most maddening aspect of time, of course, is how it passes -sneaky fast - moment into moment into millennium, each day a dollop of eternity until, finally, one morning you wake up dead.1988, Mike Nichols, Life and Other Ways to Kill Time, page 206