: a forcible stroke that kills a living thing : an act that ends the life of a person or animal
A gaping wound in the back of his head suggests the death blow was delivered by a halberd, a bladed pole weapon favored in the 15th century. Rachel Ehrenberg
… the tooth helps to dislocate the prey's neck vertebrae, the death blow most often dealt to small mammals and birds. Sarah A. Sloane
2
: an act or event that causes the end or failure of something
It shows how investors with risky business plans, unrealistic financial assumptions, and competing agendas can deliver a death blow to companies that otherwise could have survived. Emily Thornton
Nevis's fortunes declined after 1822, when the European sugar beet dealt a deathblow to the distant, inefficient cane mills of the Indies. Peter Theroux
Example Sentences
Recent Examples on the WebPut it this way: This isn’t a deathblow for anyone involved. David Fear, Rolling Stone, 5 Sep. 2022 Could war in Ukraine be a deathblow for nuclear power? Joel Mathis, The Week, 28 Feb. 2022 The case’s deathblow came in January, when the Energy Department official told prosecutors the agency didn’t believe Mr. Chen’s foreign positions would have mattered in 2017. Aruna Viswanatha, WSJ, 26 Jan. 2022 Meleager, whose spear provides the final deathblow, has been moved from the left side of the marble composition to a central position in the painting.Los Angeles Times, 6 Dec. 2021 Concerned workers worry that the second lockdown could be a deathblow to their already struggling industry. Hollie Silverman, CNN, 23 Nov. 2020 By then, Russians were poised to deliver the deathblow to Hitler’s regime in Berlin—and dominate Eastern Europe for decades to come.National Geographic, 7 May 2020 Any failure to act on the recommendation of UEFA investigators would most likely be seen as a deathblow to the organization’s efforts to impose financial controls on its member clubs. Tariq Panja, New York Times, 13 Feb. 2020 Any failure to act on the recommendation of UEFA investigators would most likely be seen as a deathblow to the organization’s efforts to impose financial controls on its member clubs. Tariq Panja, New York Times, 13 Feb. 2020 See More