decease

From Old French deces (Modern French décès), from Latin dēcessus (“departure”).

• IPA^(key): /dɪˈsiːs/

• Audio (Southern England)

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• Rhymes: -iːs

decease (countable and uncountable, plural deceases)

1. (formal) Death, departure from life.
   • 1609, William Shakespeare, “Sonnet 13”, in Shake-speares Sonnets. […], London: By G[eorge] Eld for T[homas] T[horpe] and are to be sold by William Aspley, →OCLC:

     So should that beauty which you hold in lease
     Find no determination: then you were
     Yourself again after yourself's decease […]

   • 1849 May – 1850 November, Charles Dickens, The Personal History of David Copperfield, London: Bradbury & Evans, […], published 1850, →OCLC:

     I thought about my predecessor, who had died of drink and smoke; and I could have wished he had been so good as to live, and not bother me with his decease.

decease (third-person singular simple present deceases, present participle deceasing, simple past and past participle deceased)

1. (now rare) To die.
   • 1603, Michel de Montaigne, chapter 17, in John Florio, transl., The Essayes […], book II, London: […] Val[entine] Simmes for Edward Blount […], →OCLC:

     After which usurped victorie, he presently deceased: and partly through the excessive joy he thereby conceived.

The noun and verb forms are much less commonly used than the participial adjective deceased, particularly outside formal, literary, or legal usage.

• predecease
• postdecease