death rattle

The Oxford Companion to the Body | 2001 | 700+ words | Copyright

death rattle the gurgling sound produced by air passing through mucus or fluid in the lungs of a dying person. It is said to indicate approaching death, or sometimes to be the sign of the arrival of death itself; the last sound a dying person makes.

Gustave Flaubert described Emma Bovary's death rattle in vivid terms:
At once her breast began to heave rapidly. Her tongue hung at full length from her mouth; her rolling eyes grew dim like the globes of two lamps about to go out; and one might have thought her dead already but for the terrifying, ever-faster movement of her ribs, which were shaken by furious gasps, as though her soul were straining violently to break its fetters.

Sarah Goodfellow

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COLIN BLAKEMORE and SHELIA JENNETT. "death rattle." The Oxford Companion to the Body. 2001. Encyclopedia.com. 27 May. 2012 <http://www.encyclopedia.com>.

COLIN BLAKEMORE and SHELIA JENNETT. "death rattle." The Oxford Companion to the Body. 2001. Encyclopedia.com. (May 27, 2012). http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O128-deathrattle.html

COLIN BLAKEMORE and SHELIA JENNETT. "death rattle." The Oxford Companion to the Body. 2001. Retrieved May 27, 2012 from Encyclopedia.com: http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O128-deathrattle.html

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