Plural of deathbed; the beds on which people die, or the final hours of life when someone is dying.
From death (Old English deaþ, from Proto-Germanic *dauþiz) + bed (Old English bedd). Compounds deathbed as a metaphorical bed representing the moment of dying, not necessarily a literal bed.
The phrase 'on one's deathbed' has become literary shorthand for 'at the very end of life,' but it's interesting that we use the concept of a bed—historically, this is because people actually died in beds at home much more often than they do today.
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