Antedatings in the Yale Book of Quotations -- 15 : Kiss of Death

[Stephen Goranson]

Quoting Fred Shapiro <fred.shapiro at YALE.EDU>:

> kiss of death (OED 1948)
>
> 1926 Alfred E. Smith in N.Y. Times_ 25 Oct. 1 (ProQuest Historical
> Newspapers)  These rumors have sealed his [Congressman Mills's] doom
> without New York City's vote.  And the crowning climax to the whole
> situation is the undisputed fact that William Randolph Hearst gave him the
> kiss of death.

among the earlier uses:
The angel imagined his heavenly brother had given him the sign of the kiss of
death [....]
Tales of Humour and Romance: Selected from Popular German Writers, tr. Richard
Holcraft London, 1829 p.183, google book

Stephen

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