Intensifier "V n to death" construction
Form
NP
Agent
Verb
NP
Patient
to death
Examples
Meaning
An Agent affects a Patient to a much larger extent than usual.
Roles
Agent
The person that effects a change in the Patient.
Patient
The living entity that the Agent causes to change.
Frames
Description
This abstract construction covers a couple of more specific constructions that are used as intensifiers by means of the phrase 'to death', each with a specific set of verbs. Although death is not necessarily implied, the phrase 'to death' entails that the Patient should be a living entity, regardless of the verb.
Inherits from
Sub-constructions
She stabbed Ben to death with a pair of dress-making scissors.
Goodfellow clubbed his wife to death.
The Inquisition had burned Giordano Bruno to death.
The whole idea of commuting scares me to death.
In recording every banality of the day, he risks boring the reader to death.
His mother had drunk herself to death long ago.