Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. (also death and furies!) a general excl.

1668		Dryden An Evening’s Love II i: Death! I shall have all Madrid about me within these two Days.
1677		Behn Rover V i: Death, I think she’s in earnest.
1688		T. Shadwell Squire of Alsatia II ii: Death! What shall we do? This is the bully’s father.
1701		Cibber Love Makes a Man II i: Death! you Dog, discover him.
1702		Farquhar Twin-Rivals II iv: Death and furies! I’ll be revenged!
1709		Cibber Rival Fools II i: Death! she courts the Coxcomb!
1728		Vanbrugh & Cibber Provoked Husband V i: Death, Madam!
1730		J. Miller Humours of Oxford IV ii: Death! I shall lose my Cause, if I don’t take care.
1741		Braggadochio 81: Death! had any other Man interrupted me—.
1767		G. Colman Oxonian in Town II iii: Paid it! Death!
1777		Sheridan Trip to Scarborough I i: ’Sdeath and furies! why was that coxcomb thrust into the world before me?
1780		H. Cowley Belle’s Stratagem I i: Death and fire!
1793		J. O’Keeffe Sprigs of Laurel 15: Death and ’ounds!
1805		Morn. Post (London) 25 Apr. 3/1: He cried — he roar’d [...] Death! Hell! and Furies! what dost thou do there?
1837		‘The Devil and Johnny Dixon’ in Bentley’s Misc. Mar. 255: ‘Death and nouns!’ says I.
1837		R.M. Bird Nick of the Woods III 180: Death and furies!
1854		Waterford Chron. 26 Aug. 1/5: Death-a-nekurs, will the allies ever do anything [...] worthy of themselves?
1872		Fife Herald 12 Dec. 4/2: Ha! Death and furies seize thee!
1875		Sheffield Dly Teleg. 1 June 2/3: ‘Sdeath and furies, what does she [etc.].
1895		Dly Gaz. for Middlesborough 30 July 4/4: ‘Death and furies!’ was the angry exclamation as the pitcher of water fell.
1957		J. Braine Room at the Top (1959) 36: Oh hell and death, I’m late!

2. (US campus) an excl. of approval or admiration [on bad = good model].

1987

Eble Campus Sl. Spring.