Definition of "death warrant" []

• Law An official order authorizing a person's execution. (noun)
• Something that destroys hope or expectation; a deathblow. (noun)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "On the execution being granted in the King's Bench Court, on the afternoon of the 28th of October 1618, he asked for a little time for pre - paration, but his request was refused, Bacon having already in his pocket the death warrant duly signed by the King before the meeting of the Court!"
• "Only an Eagle could save him from the islands where fever reduced a man’s life expectancy to less than a year, from the dreadful, sweating disease that made Simmerson’s request into a virtual death warrant unless Sharpe resigned his hard-won commission."
• "They weren't, and it didn't, although hopes ran high when Loch and Parkes turned up a day later; they'd been released fifteen minutes before their vermilion death warrant arrived at the Board of Punishments."