death-bed

plural death-beds

1. alternativeAlternative spelling of deathbed.

   It is said that whenever a member of the house of the Arundels of Wardour lies on his death-bed, a pair of large screech-owls fly round the battlements each night till his decease.

   1888 July 14, “Bird Legends”, in Charles Dickens [Jr.], editor, All the Year Round. A Weekly Journal., volume XLIII, number 1024, London: […], page 40, column 2

   1 more example

   Fourth of July was coming; but he soon gave that up—gave it up before he had worn his shackles over forty-eight hours—and fixed his hopes upon old Judge Frazer, justice of the peace, who was apparently on his death-bed and would have a big public funeral, since he was so high an official.

   1876, Mark Twain [pseudonym; Samuel Langhorne Clemens], chapter XXII, in The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, Hartford, Conn.: The American Publishing Company, →OCLC, pages 176–177