die off


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die off

To become extinct gradually, as of a group of people or animals. That species of birds will die off if we keep destroying their habitat.
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die off

[for a living thing] to perish one by one until there are no more. Most of the larger lizards died off eons ago. It would be really bad if all the owls died off. The cucumber blossoms all died off.
See also: die, off

die off

Perish one by one, as in A celibate community, the Shakers are dying off. [Late 1600s]
See also: die, off

die off

v.
To become extinct gradually: The dodo died off in the 1600s. Wolves were dying off in the formerly rural area as new subdivisions were built.
See also: die, off
References in periodicals archive ?
When the oil is gone and water is no longer added, the bugs die off.
TINY BUGS MAKING A MEAL OF POLLUTION AT SITE
Although other researchers have isolated bacteria in the lab that can degrade specific toxic chemicals, the same bacteria usually die off when released at a cleanup site, says Madsen.
Toxic cleanups get aboost
The poppy reserve is open from spring until the last blooms die off.
FLOWERS GET A FIERY FAVOR CREWS SMOKE OUT RIVAL WEEDS AT CALIFORNIA POPPY RESERVE
Normally in any organism, some cells die off naturally and others multiply to take their places.
Cadmium mimics estrogen's effects, thwarts DNA repair. (Metal's Mayhem)
They ended around the time the widows of the men who fought in the Spanish-American War and World War I started to die off.
ASSOCIATION STILL SERVES WAR WIDOWS
Sets of species may persist through major extinction events only to die off in the after-math, new research suggests.
Groups surviving mass extinction still go bust. ((Evolution's Death Row)
The winds are expected to continue through this morning and die off by afternoon, while the air will remain hot and dry for the next several days, according to the National Weather Service.
WINDS DOWN TREES, WHIP BLAZES
When the spine is severely bruised, some nerve cells die off immediately.
Stem cells repair rat spinal cord damage
Their goal: to reduce local mollusks so that larval worms fail to find a host and simply die off.
A first: Scientists oust a marine invader
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