English

Noun

death sentence ‎(plural death sentences)

1. (law) A decree that someone be put to death as a punishment for a crime, a sentence of execution.
   • 1945 May, George Orwell, chapter 6, in Animal Farm: A Fairy Story, London: Secker & Warburg, OCLC 3655473:

     Comrades, here and now I pronounce the death sentence upon Snowball.

2. (figuratively) Anything that spells death.

   Having the Huntington's gene is a death sentence.

Translations