death knell

plural death knells · alternative death-knell

1. The tolling of a bell announcing death.

   Its recurrence was regular, but as slow as the tolling of a death-knell.

   1890, Ambrose Bierce, chapter 1, in An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge

   1 more example

   The sound was the stroke of a bell from the tower of East Endelstow Church. […] The death-knell of an inhabitant of the eastern parish was being tolled.

   1872 September – 1873 July, Thomas Hardy, “‘25’”, in A Pair of Blue Eyes. […], volume (please specify |volume=I to III), London: Tinsley Brothers, […], published 1873, →OCLC

2. broadlyA marker, sign or omen foretelling the imminent end, death or destruction of something.

   "It is the death knell of an orchestra if it doesn't have its own home," he says.

   2004 June 28, Jamie James, “The Rise of a Musical Superpower”, in Time

   4 more examples

   The thought was a death-knell to Helen's last hope, and she sank down, quite overcome;[…]

   1901, Upton Sinclair, chapter 10, in King Midas

   The dirty little secret at the heart of Sex Box, in fact, was that it was a well-meaning and thoughtful anthropological experiment dressed up as a tawdry, tabloid-bating death knell for standards of common decency.

   2015 February 26, Sophie Gilbert, “Soggy Bottoms and 'Sex Box': The Saucy State of TV's British Imports”, in The Atlantic

   A rupture would represent a death knell for the West and would harm the US worker.

   2018, Michael Cottakis – LSE, “Colliding worlds: Donald Trump and the European Union”, in LSE's blog

   One day in the not too distant future, we may look back on Donald Trump’s return to power as the death knell of “liberal internationalism.”

   2025 January 23, Ned Temko, “Is the West’s liberal template broken?”, in The Christian Science Monitor