Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English - die

~1 v past tense and past participle diedpresent participle dying 1 »BECOME DEAD« to stop living and become dead  (He was very sick and we knew he might die. | of/from)  (The animals died of starvation in the snow. | My grandfather died from a heart attack.) + for  (Do you believe in anything enough to die for it?) die happy/poor/young etc  (He died young, at the age of 27. | die a hero/martyr/rich man etc)  (Van Gogh died a broken man. | die a natural/horrible etc death (=die in a particular way) | to your dying day (=until you die) | die by your own hand literary (=kill yourself) | die in your sleep)  (She died peacefully in her sleep at the age of 98.) 2 »DISAPPEAR« to disappear or stop existing  (Our love will never die. | die with sb (=disappear or be finished when someone dies))  (The family name will die with him.) 3 »MACHINES« informal to stop working  (The car's engine spluttered and died. | die on sb (=stop working while they are using it))  (The mower just died on me.) 4 be dying for spoken to want something very much  (I'm dying for a cup of coffee.) 5 be dying to do sth spoken to want to do something very much, so that it is difficult to wait  (We're dying to get started.) 6 be dying of hunger/thirst spoken to be very hungry or thirsty 7 I nearly died/I could have died spoken used to say that you felt very surprised or embarrassed  (I nearly died when my ex-husband walked into the room!) 8 I'd rather die spoken used to say very strongly that you do not want to do something  (I'd rather die than work for him!) 9 old habits die hard used to say that it takes a long time to change to a new way of doing something 10 never say die spoken used to encourage someone to continue doing something that is difficult 11 die laughing spoken to laugh a lot  (I nearly died laughing when I saw him with that ridiculous haircut.) 12 die the death informal to gradually fail or be destroyed  (Eventually the photography club died the death.) 13 dying breath/wish someone's very last breath or wish before they die  (No matter what you think, say nothing about it to your dying breath.) 14 die on the vine literary to fail, especially at an early stage, because of a lack of support 15 sth to die for something that is so nice or attractive that you would do anything to have it  (cream cakes to die for) die away phr v if sound, wind, or light dies away, it becomes gradually weaker and finally stops  (The strange noise died away and an absolute silence closed in upon us.) die back phr v if a plant dies back, it dies above the ground but remains alive at its roots die down phr v if something dies down, it becomes less strong, active, or violent  (Don't worry, the gossip will soon die down.) die off phr v if a group of people, animals etc die off, they die one by one until there are no more of them die out phr v to disappear or stop existing completely  (Smallpox has completely died out in this country.) ~2 n 1 a metal block used to press or cut something into a particular shape 2 a dice1 (1) 3 the die is cast used to say that a decision has been taken and cannot now be changed