The act of killing someone painlessly (especially someone suffering from an incurable illness).

synonym: mercy killing.

Roget 370: husbandry, taming etc. v.; circuration^†, zoohygiantics^†; domestication, domesticity; manege [Fr.], veterinary art; farriery^†; breeding, pisciculture.    menagerie, vivarium, zoological garden; bear pit; aviary, apiary, alveary^†, beehive; hive; aquarium, fishery; duck pond, fish pond.    phthisozoics etc. (killing) 361^† [Destruction of animals]; euthanasia, sacrifice, humane destruction.    neatherd^†, cowherd, shepherd; grazier, drover, cowkeeper^†; trainer, breeder; apiarian^†, apiarist; bull whacker [U.S.], cowboy, cow puncher [U.S.], farrier; horse leech, horse doctor; vaquero, veterinarian, vet, veterinary surgeon.    cage etc. (prison) 752; hencoop^†, bird cage, cauf^†; range, sheepfold, etc. (inclosure) 232.    ... show more

Roget 360: death; decease, demise; dissolution, departure, obit, release, rest, quietus, fall; loss, bereavement; mortality, morbidity.    end of life etc. 67, cessation of life etc. 142, loss of life, extinction of life, ebb of life etc. 359.    death warrant, death watch, death rattle, death bed; stroke of death, agonies of death, shades of death, valley of death, jaws of death, hand of death; last breath, last gasp, last agonies; dying day, dying breath, dying agonies; chant du cygne [Fr.]; rigor mortis [Lat.]; Stygian shore.    King of terrors, King Death; Death; doom etc. (necessity) 601; Hell's grim Tyrant" [Pope]. euthanasia; break up of the system; natural death, natural decay; sudden death, violent death; untimely end, watery grave; debt of nature; suffocation, asphyxia; fatal disease etc. (disease) 655; death blow etc. (killing) 361.    necrology, bills of mortality, obituary; death song etc. (lamentation) 839.    ... show more

Dutch: euthanasie, levensbeëindiging