Definition

Noun: 1. An official order authorizing the execution of a person sentenced to death: A legal document issued by a court or governing authority that commands the carrying out of a death sentence. 2. (Figuratively) An action or event that ensures the failure or destruction of something: Something that causes the inevitable end or ruin of a plan, project, or situation.

Usage Examples

• The judge signed the death warrant after the final appeal was denied.
• The new evidence was so compelling that it acted as a death warrant for the prosecution's case.
• Signing that contract without reading the fine print was the death warrant for his business.

Advanced Usage

• "to sign one's own death warrant": To take an action that leads to one's own downfall or ruin.
  • By betraying the leader, he effectively signed his own death warrant within the organization.

Variants and Related Words

• Execution order (noun phrase): A direct synonym for the primary legal meaning.
• Warrant (noun): A broader term for an official authorization or document.

Synonyms

• Execution order
• Death sentence (note: "death sentence" is the judicial pronouncement, while a "death warrant" is the document ordering it to be carried out)
• Doom (for the figurative sense)

Related Phrases

• Carry out a death warrant: To execute the order.
  • The state prepared to carry out the death warrant.

Noun

1. a warrant to execute the death sentence