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Glite Dictionary
civil death

civil death

9.9
A state in which a person loses most legal rights such as voting and owning property
  • noun
  • /ˈsɪvəl dɛθ/
  • Formal
translation icon : muerte civil
  • After being convicted of treason, he faced civil death and lost all his rights as a citizen.

Examples

  • The law stipulated that those sentenced to life imprisonment would experience civil death, stripping them of their legal rights.

  • In some jurisdictions, civil death can occur when an individual is declared legally incompetent, resulting in the loss of most civil rights.

  • Here we see that social and civil death work to make killing without trial not just acceptable, but normal, even expected.

Synonyms

attainder
vscivil death
  • Archaic
1 9.9

Loss of rights and property after a court sentence or a special law, used in the past

is loss of rights used as criminal punishment, often from imprisonment not legislation

Antonyms

civil right
561 3.1

A right the law gives people to be treated equally and have basic freedoms

Surface Forms

civil death singular
civil deaths plural

Morphology

civil + death

The constituents 'civil' (relating to law or public affairs) and 'death' (an end) readily suggest a figurative ending within the civil/legal sphere, so a learner who knows both words could infer it involves loss of civil status or rights. However, the term is a conventional legal phrase with a specific punitive meaning and specialized implications that may not be fully predictable to a B1 learner without prior exposure.

Etymology

Civil death comes from old laws that treated someone as if they were dead in public life: they lost their civil rights like voting, owning property, or marrying. That's why the phrase now means 'losing most legal rights'.