> as lemmas

1483 W. Caxton tr. Caton F vj b Euery man ought to haue good hope whan he is in the article of deth.

a1500 Craft of Deyng (Cambr. Kk.1.5) in R. Girvan Ratis Raving & Other Early Scots Poems (1939) 167 Thai that are in the artykle of ded has vþir temptacions.

1512 MS. Reg. Test. Ebor. VIII. 101 b Seyng the articlys of deth comyng apon me.

1660 Bp. J. Taylor Ductor Dubitantium I. ii. iii. 551 The common customes of the world expound all the laws of the Blessed Jesus so as to be truly obligatory at no time but in the danger, or in the article of death.

1782 T. Newton Wks. II. 706 In the article of death he commended his soul to God.

1816 S. Phillipps Treat. Law of Evid. viii. 374 A will is often executed suddenly in a last sickness, and sometimes in the article of death.

1861 H. S. Maine Anc. Law vi. 207 Roman citizens originally made their Wills only in the article of death.

1924 C. S. Lewis Diary 4 May (1991) 319 Farki's daughter had just got the sack from a London hospital for feeding a child who had diabetes on plum cake in the article of death.

1947 Philos. Rev. 56 215 In the very article of death Socrates says: ‘Crito, we owe a cock to Asclepius. Pay it and don't forget’.

1981 C. Harvie No Gods & Precious Few Heroes (1993) vi. 169 The works..was demolished in 1996. By 1996, too, the shipyards seemed close to the article of death.