sit on death's doorstep
English
editVerb
editsit on death's doorstep (third-person singular simple present sits on death's doorstep, present participle sitting on death's doorstep, simple past and past participle sat on death's doorstep)
- To be on the brink of death; to be almost dead.
- 1982, Lyrical Iowa, page 109:
- You can sit on death's doorstep, And rest your weary bones.
- 2002, Dissertation Abstracts International, page 3778:
- From the Otherworld she hopes, as a shaman, to retrieve the soul of her dead or dying intended husband, who sits on Death's doorstep.
- 2015, Terry Cooksey, The Cure For All Disease:
- Even when I had an excellent diet, within 5 years of drinking Ocean Spray juices, sodas, Gatorade and sugar sweetened tea every day, I had blown out my kidneys and was sitting on death's doorstep.
- 2020, Rick Walker, Calafia: The Untold Story of California's Beginnings:
- The soldiers, officers, and priests all devoted considerable time and effort to nursing the ill men back to health, but too many of them still sat on death's doorstep.