dying

Pluraldyings

1. 1
   verb

   Present participle and gerund of die.

   The patient was dying slowly, and the family gathered at the bedside.

   Coral reefs are dying as ocean temperatures climb.

   Note

   The spelling changes before -ing: the ie of die becomes y, so die gives dying. The participle keeps die's prepositions. Dying of and dying from both name a cause, and from leans toward medical and scientific writing. Dying for often points to a wider motive. Dying with a cause is archaic, and dying to used the same way is proscribed.

2. 2
   adjective

   Approaching death and expected to die soon; moribund.

   Like the last embers of a fire fading slowly to ash.

   Doctors moved the dying patient to a quiet room for comfort.

   A dying soldier scrawled a final note to his wife.

   Similarmoribund, terminal, expiring

   Note

   Built from die plus -ing, it covers the stretch of time before death, and it applies just as easily to things that never lived, such as a dying fire. Like dead, it can stand alone as a noun for people, as in the dead and dying on a battlefield. It does not take more or most: something is dying or it is not.

3. 3
   adjective

   Declining or in terminal decline; gradually drawing to an end.

   Like a language with only a handful of speakers left.

   Print newspapers are widely seen as a dying industry.

   They watched the last light of the dying day fade over the hills.

   Similarmoribund, waning, vanishing

   Oppositethriving, flourishing, booming, emerging

   Note

   Here the end belongs to a period, a practice or an institution rather than a body. P. J. Norris, writing in Railway Magazine in 1957, spoke of reviving a dying branch line, and Christian Wolmar in 2024 called a government a dying administration. Revive is its natural opposite. With time words it marks the final stretch: the dying moments of daylight. Unlike the literal sense, nothing here is alive.

4. 4
   adjective

   Relating to death or to the final moments before it.

   The soldier's dying words were written down by a nearby medic.

   He honored his father's dying request to keep the farm.

   Similarfinal, last

   Note

   The word shifts from the person to the occasion. In dying words, a dying bed or a dying request, the noun being described is not itself near death; it belongs to the end of someone's life. Until my dying day is a fixed phrase meaning "for the rest of my life", usually attached to a promise or a memory. In this use the adjective comes only before a noun.

5. 5
   nouncountable or uncountable

   The process of approaching death; the ending of life.

   Like a river finally reaching the sea.

   The book offers a frank meditation on dying and the fear it brings.

   Many cultures surround dying with ritual and ceremony.

   Similardeath

   Note

   A noun for the process rather than the event, which is why it can take a possessive. Timothy Leary, quoted in 1995, urged people to approach "your dying" the way they live their lives. Death is the end point, and dying is the time leading up to it, so talk of care, fear or ritual often calls for dying. It can also be counted, with the plural dyings.

6. 6
   verbnonstandard

   Nonstandard spelling of the present participle and gerund of dye; the standard spelling is dyeing.

   The artisans were dying the wool with natural indigo.

   Dying silk by hand requires patience and skill.

   Note

   An older spelling for coloring with dye, now nonstandard. The accepted form is dyeing, which keeps the e so that dyed wool is not confused with the participle of die. A sentence like "dying silk by hand" first reads as something grim. In careful writing, use dyeing for fabric, hair and color, and keep dying for death.

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