Advertisement
Advertisement
death knell
death knell
noun
- something that heralds death or destruction
- a bell rung to announce a death
Idioms and Phrases
Something that indicates impending failure, as in His low scores sounded the death knell for his ambitions . The noun knell , used for the ringing of a bell since at least a.d. 1000, is rarely heard today except in this figurative phrase.Example Sentences
But for Le Pen, this could be the death knell of her long-cherished ambition to become French president.
The death knell was the wretched failure of Christian nationalism as a governing style.
One senior Arab source told me it could be its "death knell".
Sometimes, that celebration of energy can obfuscate the real artistic merits of a film, a director’s blinkered vision becoming a death knell.
But whether history will look back on his appearance as the well-timed heralding of another economic boom - or a death knell - remains to be seen.
Advertisement
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
Advertisement
Advertisement
Advertisement
Browse