last rites
16
7.2
- noun
- /læst raɪts/
- Formal
:
extremaunción
- In moments of grief, receiving the last rites can provide comfort and solace.
- give last rites
- administer last rites
- perform last rites
The father is Jervas is coming to give her last rites.
- The father is Jervas is coming to give her last rites.
- And when that priest came in there to give her the last rites, it was an important moment.
Examples
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The priest arrived quickly to administer the last rites to the dying man.
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They gave him his last rites.
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We have come to give him the last rites.
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And when that priest came in there to give her the last rites, it was an important moment.
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A priest has administered the last rites.
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Thank God I was able to administer his last rites.
Fiction book (1992) -
A priest reads last rites to a mourning family.
Fiction book (1994) -
When she was 99, Capovilla fell ill and was given the last rites of the Roman Catholic Church.
Blog text (24) -
Navy chaplain Luis Padillo gives last rites to a soldier wounded by sniper fire during a revolt in Venezuela.
Blog text (12) -
Family members gathered around as the priest performed the last rites for their loved one.
Synonyms
2
4.1
A formal ceremony that people follow as part of a religion
1
9.9
A ceremony in which a priest puts oil on a dying person and prays for them
A Roman Catholic ritual where a priest puts oil on a very sick person and prays for comfort
Surface Forms
Morphology
The meaning is directly and compositionally derived from 'last' (final) + 'rites' (religious ceremonies): together they denote the final religious ceremonies performed at or around death. This concept is cross-linguistically common (e.g. Spanish 'últimos ritos') and would be inferable to a B1 learner who knows both constituent words.
Etymology
Last rites comes from the image of a priest doing the final religious ceremonies for someone who is about to die. Last means 'final' and rites means 'religious ceremonies', so the phrase now means 'the religious acts for someone who is dying or has just died'.