die roaring

English

Verb

die roaring (third-person singular simple present dies roaring, present participle dying roaring, simple past and past participle died roaring)

1. (Ireland, colloquial, dated) die in agony, especially as divine punishment for a wicked life
   • 1910, Patrick Weston Joyce, “Comparisons”, in English as we speak it in Ireland‎, London: Longmans, Green, page 137:

     May you die roaring like Doran's bull!

   • 1939 March, Frank O'Connor, “First Confession”, in Harper's Bazaar:

     "Did you ever see a fellow hanged?"
     "I saw dozens of them," he assured me solemnly, "and they all died roaring."

   • 1997 September 13, “The court of Malachy”, in The Irish Times‎:

     The genial, white-haired Malachy also enthralled the audience with grim jokes about how Henry VIII and Randolph Churchill died roaring from syphillis.

Related terms

• die roaring for a priest