Exceedingly fond of or addicted to. Also (by an odd inconsistency) fatal to.
1842. We need not say that this medicine is death on colds.—Phila. Spirit of the Times, March 10.
1847. A long, lanky, cadaverous lawyer, who was death on a speech, powerful in chewing tobacco, and some at a whisky drinking.—Robb, ‘Streaks of Squatter Life,’ &c., p. 30 (Phila.).
1850. Never kill a harmless insect; ‘give him a chance;’ but don’t mind being ‘death on ’skeeters.’—Knick. Mag., xxxv. 91 (Jan.).
[1850. “Purchase this [hat] for your mother,” said the salesman to a rustic damsel; “it will make her look so dignified.” “I’ll certainly buy it, then,” returned she, “for mammy has always been hell an dignity.”—Mr. Foote of Mississippi, U.S. Senate, Jan. 31: Cong. Globe, p. 91, App.]
1853. Mayor How is death on hogs and dogs.—Daily Morning Herald, St. Louis, April 26.
1853. “Got a smart chunk of a pony thar.” “Yes, sir, he’s some pumkins sure; offered ten cows and calves for him; he’s death on a quarter” [i.e., a “quarter race.”]—S. A. Hammett (‘Philip Paxton’), ‘A Stray Yankee in Texas,’ p. 44.
1855. Women, I believe, are born with certain natural tastes. Sally was death on lace, and old Aunt Thankful goes the whole figure for furs; either on em could tell real thread or genuine sable clear across the church.—Haliburton, ‘Nature and Human Nature,’ p. 225 (Bartlett).
1856. The District Attorney is death on every vessel that has the least smell of gunpowder.—Seba Smith, ‘Major Jack Downing,’ p. 449 (1860).
