"sit on death's doorstep" meaning in English

{
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "sits on death's doorstep",
      "tags": [
        "present",
        "singular",
        "third-person"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "sitting on death's doorstep",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "present"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "sat on death's doorstep",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "past"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "sat on death's doorstep",
      "tags": [
        "past"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "sits on death's doorstep",
        "2": "sitting on death's doorstep",
        "3": "sat on death's doorstep"
      },
      "expansion": "sit on death's doorstep (third-person singular simple present sits on death's doorstep, present participle sitting on death's doorstep, simple past and past participle sat on death's doorstep)",
      "name": "en-verb"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "verb",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
          "parents": [
            "Entries with incorrect language header",
            "Entry maintenance"
          ],
          "source": "w"
        }
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "1982, Lyrical Iowa, page 109",
          "text": "You can sit on death's doorstep, And rest your weary bones.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2002, Dissertation Abstracts International, page 3778",
          "text": "From the Otherworld she hopes, as a shaman, to retrieve the soul of her dead or dying intended husband, who sits on Death's doorstep.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2015, Terry Cooksey, The Cure For All Disease",
          "text": "Even when I had an excellent diet, within 5 years of drinking Ocean Spray juices, sodas, Gatorade and sugar sweetened tea every day, I had blown out my kidneys and was sitting on death's doorstep.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2020, Rick Walker, Calafia: The Untold Story of California's Beginnings",
          "text": "The soldiers, officers, and priests all devoted considerable time and effort to nursing the ill men back to health, but too many of them still sat on death's doorstep.",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "To be on the brink of death; to be almost dead."
      ],
      "id": "en-sit_on_death's_doorstep-en-verb-3yzk4in~"
    }
  ],
  "word": "sit on death's doorstep"
}

{
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "sits on death's doorstep",
      "tags": [
        "present",
        "singular",
        "third-person"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "sitting on death's doorstep",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "present"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "sat on death's doorstep",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "past"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "sat on death's doorstep",
      "tags": [
        "past"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "sits on death's doorstep",
        "2": "sitting on death's doorstep",
        "3": "sat on death's doorstep"
      },
      "expansion": "sit on death's doorstep (third-person singular simple present sits on death's doorstep, present participle sitting on death's doorstep, simple past and past participle sat on death's doorstep)",
      "name": "en-verb"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "verb",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        "English entries with incorrect language header",
        "English lemmas",
        "English multiword terms",
        "English terms with quotations",
        "English verbs"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "1982, Lyrical Iowa, page 109",
          "text": "You can sit on death's doorstep, And rest your weary bones.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2002, Dissertation Abstracts International, page 3778",
          "text": "From the Otherworld she hopes, as a shaman, to retrieve the soul of her dead or dying intended husband, who sits on Death's doorstep.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2015, Terry Cooksey, The Cure For All Disease",
          "text": "Even when I had an excellent diet, within 5 years of drinking Ocean Spray juices, sodas, Gatorade and sugar sweetened tea every day, I had blown out my kidneys and was sitting on death's doorstep.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2020, Rick Walker, Calafia: The Untold Story of California's Beginnings",
          "text": "The soldiers, officers, and priests all devoted considerable time and effort to nursing the ill men back to health, but too many of them still sat on death's doorstep.",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "To be on the brink of death; to be almost dead."
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "sit on death's doorstep"
}