Definitions

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun The process of falling asleep.
  • noun euphemistic The process of death or the actual death itself.
  • noun Eastern Orthodoxy, often capitalized The death and assumption into heaven of the Virgin Mary.

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Middle French dormition, from Latin dormītiōnem.

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Examples

  • In the eighth century, for example, John Damascene, establishing a direct relationship between the 'dormition' of Mary and the death of Jesus, explicitly affirms the truth of her bodily assumption.

    Archive 2008-08-10 papabear 2008

  • Following this, a twofold tradition - in Jerusalem and in Ephesus - attests to her 'dormition', as the Eastern Christians call it, her 'falling asleep' in God.

    Archive 2008-08-10 papabear 2008

  • Mary asked that the Twelve Apostles be brought to her, then fell into a deep sleep, the dormition, and died peacefully.

    A Handbook of Symbols in Christian Art Gertrude Grace Sill 1975

  • Mary asked that the Twelve Apostles be brought to her, then fell into a deep sleep, the dormition, and died peacefully.

    A Handbook of Symbols in Christian Art Gertrude Grace Sill 1975

  • Thy departing hence ne thy dormition shall not be without witness.

    The Golden Legend, vol. 4 1230-1298 1900

  • It is a position anciently known, and modern experience hath allowed it for a sad truth, that absence and time, -- like cold weather, and an unnatural dormition -- will blast and wear out of memory the most endearing obligations; and hence it was that some politicians in love have looked upon the former of these two as a main remedy against the fondness of that passion.

    Poems of Henry Vaughan, Silurist, Volume II Henry Vaughan 1658

  • These words came to the Fathers 'minds while meditating on the dormition and assumption of Our Blessed Lady.

    Latest Articles 2009

  • Then we consult him upon matters of doctrine, and quiz him tenderly about his powers of dormition, and flatter him, or rather his age, with such phrases as, “The water from thy hand is of the Waters of

    Personal Narrative of a Pilgrimage to Al-Madinah and Meccah 2003

  • 6.3 Book of John concerning the dormition of Mary (transitus mariæ) *

    Yahoo! Answers: Latest Questions 2009

Comments

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  • A falling asleep (and a euphemism for 'death'). (from WordCraft)

    May 20, 2008

  • JM is a wake up to dormition!

    September 27, 2010

  • Reports of unwanted dormition

    Might call for a thoughtful physician,

    But if shadows creeping

    Are deeper than sleeping

    Then turn to your favorite mortician.

    December 22, 2017