English edit

Etymology edit

From Middle English dethful, equivalent to death +‎ -ful.

Adjective edit

deathful (comparative more deathful, superlative most deathful)

  1. Involving the danger of death; fatal, deadly. [from 13th c.]
    • 1789, Erasmus Darwin, The Loves of the Plants, J. Johnson, page 111:
      Five hapless swains with soft allusive smiles / The harlot meshes in her deathful toils [] .
  2. Resembling or pertaining to death; deathly. [from 15th c.]
  3. (literary) Subject to death; mortal. [from 17th c.]