a. Also 6–7 lethall, læthall. [ad. L. lēt(h)āl-is deadly, f. lēt(h)um death.]
1. That may or will cause death; deadly, mortal. Said, e.g., of weapons, drugs, wounds. Now esp. of a dose of poison: Sufficient to cause death.
1613. R. Cawdrey, Table Alph. (ed. 3), Lethall, mortall, deadly.
1659. T. Pecke, Parnassi Puerp., 127. There’s no more need to throw the lethal Spear.
1671. E. Panton, Spec. Juvent., 96. Among beasts some live by what is lethal to others.
1706. Maule, Hist. Picts, in Misc. Scot., I. 39. Lethal wounds.
1816. Southey, Lay Laureate, liv. There needs no outward wound! Through her whole frame benumb’d, a lethal sleep, Like the cold poison of the asp will creep.
1855. Garrod, Mat. Med. (ed. 6), 123. Small doses raise the blood pressure … lethal ones cause immediate paralysis of the heart.
1860. Gosse, Rom. Nat. Hist., 240. Implements so terribly lethal, that the slightest puncture of the skin … is inevitably … followed by … death.
1885. Huxley, Addr. Roy. Soc., 30 Nov. Those lethal agencies which are commonly known as the pleasures of society.
b. Resulting in death.
1850. Blackie, Æschylus, I. 104. The occasion … out of which the lethal quarrel arose.
c. Lethal chamber: a chamber containing gases, in which to destroy animals painlessly.
1884. Punch, 27 Dec., 309/1. A sort of Lethal Chamber and Cat Trap combined.
1888. in Syd. Soc. Lex.
1901. Blackw. Mag., Jan., 50/1. They were quietly disposed of by euthanasia in a lethal chamber.
2. Causing or resulting in spiritual death; deadly; † esp. of sin = mortal.
1583. Stubbes, Anat. Abus., I. (1879), 27. Two kindes of sinne, the one veniall, the other lethall.
1603. Florio, Montaigne, II. xv. 358. To rouze, and awaken … the godly and religious soules, and raise them from out a lethall security.
1647. Ward, Simp. Cobler, 41. Such Epidemicall and lethall formality in other disciplinated Churches.
1860. Reade, Cloister & H., lv. (1896), 157. Discoursing of sinners and their lethal end.
3. Of or pertaining to death.
1607. E. Sharpham, Cupid’s Whirligig, IV. G 4. Vengeance wings brings on thy lethall day.
1794. Coleridge, Monody death Chatterton, 57. On thy wan forehead starts the lethal dew.
Hence † Lethally adv., in a deadly manner.
1661. Lovell, Hist. Anim. & Min., 328. A … contagious matter, hurting all the actions of the heart suddainly and lethaly.
