- a low-pitched gurgling sound sometimes made by a dying person, caused by air passing through an accumulation of mucus in the trachea
WordReference Random House Unabridged Dictionary of American English © 2026
death′ rat′tle,
- a sound produced by a person immediately preceding death, resulting from the passage of air through the mucus in the throat.
- 1820–30
Collins Concise English Dictionary © HarperCollins Publishers::
death rattle n
'death rattle' also found in these entries (note: many are not synonyms or translations):