Glossary entry (derived from question below)
Spanish term or phrase:
casi muerto
English translation:
Close to death
Spanish term
Costa Rica
Native in: Spanish 
casi muerto
¿Ustedes me podrían ayudar a traducir la expresión "casi muerto" en la siguiente oración, por favor?
Oración: “Esa misma tarde, me enteré de que el día anterior al internamiento él se había sentido débil y casi muerto”.
Contexto: esta oración ese de un cuento sobre un enfermo que sufre de leucemia y está hospitalizado.
¿La traducción "almost or barely dead" les parece natural o tal vez exista alguna otra opción para decir lo mismo al inglés?
Muchas gracias.
| 5 +2 | Close to death |
Ruth Hill
|
| 4 +4 | On the brink of death |
Zeinab Hamid
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| 4 +1 | at the point of death |
matt robinson
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| 4 +1 | at death’s door |
Carol Gullidge
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| 3 | dying on the verge of death |
Elsa Caballero
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| almost exhausted |
José Patrício
|
Apr 25, 2022 23:07: Ruth Hill Created KOG entry
Non-PRO (2): philgoddard, Yvonne Gallagher
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Proposed translations
Close to death
United Kingdom
Polyglot scientist (PhD)
Native in: Arabic 
, English
Works in: English to Arabic, French to Arabic, Spanish to Arabic, and 3 more.
On the brink of death
| agree |
Ruth Hill
2 mins
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Thanks Ruth!
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| agree |
philgoddard
1 hr
|
| agree |
Noni Gilbert Riley
2 hrs
|
| agree |
Katarina Peters
6 hrs
|
Australia
Passionate about quality
Native in: Spanish (Variant: Standard-Spain)
Works in: English to Spanish, Spanish to English, Italian to Spanish
dying on the verge of death
United Kingdom
poetically precise prose with... panache
Native in: English
Works in: French to English, Spanish to English, English
at death’s door
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Note added at 4 hrs (2022-04-25 11:04:59 GMT)
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at death's door
Extremely ill or very close to death
A case of untreated rabies left me suddenly at death's door.
Farlex Dictionary of Idioms. © 2022 Farlex, Inc, all rights reserved.
at death's door
very near the end of one's life. (Often an exaggeration.) I was so ill that I was at death's door for three days. The family dog was at death's door for three days, and then it finally died.
McGraw-Hill Dictionary of American Idioms and Phrasal Verbs. © 2002 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.
at death's door
On the point of dying, very ill, as in Whenever she had a bad cold she acted as though she were at death's door. The association of death with an entry way was first made in English in the late 1300s, and the phrase itself dates from the mid-1500s. Today it is often used as an exaggeration of ill health.
| agree |
patinba
: This is what one would say about oneself in the circumstances described.
5 hrs
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Thanks, patina, that is exactly what I had in mind- i.e., as the patient himself might express how they felt
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Reference comments
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