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deathlike

deathlike

1 8.6
Pale and motionless like someone who is dead
  • adjective
  • /ˈdɛθˌlaɪk/
translation icon : mortal
  • In the depths of winter, the landscape lay under a deathlike blanket of snow, void of color and sound.
  • deathlike sleep

Examples

  • In the fall and winter of 1741-42, dozens of gifted lay men and women in parishes from southern Connecticut to downeast Maine experienced similar raptures in which they lay in a deathlike state for a protracted period of time.

    Academic text (2005)
  • The room was shrouded in a deathlike stillness, as if all life had been drained from it.

  • His deathlike grip on the safety bar in front of them.

    Fiction book (1992)
  • Calam felt a deathlike chill as the dog walked to the fireplace.

    Fiction book (1997)
  • Very soon now, the drug will cause the subject... to experience a deathlike paralysis... together with deep feelings of terror and helplessness.

  • All I had to do, if my mother's baby came in the night, was to raise our sleeping benefactors from a deathlike trance.

    Fiction book (1991)
  • Now he could see them squirming weakly, gasping for breath even as they remained in a deathlike trance.

    Fiction book (2001)
  • A shroud of silence hung heavily over them, and the aura it projected was leaden and deathlike.

    Fiction book (2002)
  • So instead, the Beastlord pretended haughty indifference and turned a bored, deathlike eye toward his unholy ally.

    Fiction book (1992)
  • After the car accident, he lay on the ground in a deathlike position, unresponsive and still.

Synonyms

dead
vsdeathlike
248 1.0

Still and quiet, without movement or life, like water

stresses resemblance to death itself rather than mere stillness or quiet
lifeless
vsdeathlike
8 4.4

Too harsh for plants or animals to survive there

highlights qualities that evoke the idea of death rather than only absence of life
deathly
vsdeathlike
6 6.5

Very pale, still, or quiet like someone who is dead

is the more common variant used interchangeably in similar contexts
spectral
vsdeathlike
  • Literature
5 7.5

Looking like a ghost and causing fear

is used when the focus is on general resemblance to death rather than eerie aspects
ghostlike
vsdeathlike
1 6.5

Having a pale, thin, and quiet appearance that feels spooky

points to resemblance to death more than to supernatural presence
corpselike
vsdeathlike
1 9.1

Looks very pale and still like a dead person

focuses more on the overall mood of being like death rather than body look
tomblike
vsdeathlike
1 8.3

Dark, quiet, and gloomy like a tomb

is used for broad resemblance to death in looks or mood
zombielike
vsdeathlike
1 7.7

Looking or moving like a tired, lifeless person

refers more to general resemblance to death than robotic motion
wraithlike
vsdeathlike
1 9.9

Having a thin, ghostlike appearance

refers to general resemblance to death by stillness or faint form

Antonyms

30 3.8

Full of energy and enthusiasm

How Deathlike

corpselike
1 9.1
deathlike
1 8.6
lifeless
8 4.4
to wan
  • Archaic
417 8.6
pale
291 1.0

Surface Forms

deathlike positive

Morphology

deathlike = death (transparent) = death + like

The word straightforwardly means 'like death' or 'resembling death' from the noun 'death' plus the adjectival suffix '-like'.

Etymology

Deathlike is simply made of death and -like, where -like means 'similar to', like in childlike or lifelike. So something deathlike looks or feels very pale, still, or silent, like being dead.