die out

• Audio (AU)

  (file)

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

1. (idiomatic) To become extinct.

   Synonym: die off

   • 1963, Margery Allingham, chapter 1, in The China Governess: A Mystery, London: Chatto & Windus, →OCLC:

     The original family who had begun to build a palace to rival Nonesuch had died out before they had put up little more than the gateway, […].

   • 2008, BioWare, Mass Effect (Science Fiction), Redwood City: Electronic Arts, →ISBN, →OCLC, PC, scene: Med Bay Lab, SSV Normandy:

     Shepard: I thought you always needed another species to serve as one of the parents.
     Liara: Think about it, Shepard. If we were not able to mate with our own species, we would have died out long before we ever mastered space flight and left our homeworld.

   The dinosaurs died out a long time ago.

2. (idiomatic) To cease gradually.

   Coordinate term: die down

   The prejudice has died out.

   • 1945 January and February, A Former Pupil, “Some Memories of Crewe Works—III”, in Railway Magazine, page 14:

     However, apart from all this, the Chief was a grand old man, belonging to a class of individualists which seems to be dying out in these days, when standard behaviour seems to be as prevalent as standard designs.