living death

He was saying that a kind of living death had come to him with the loss.

She must go to Portsmouth;—which she knew was tantamount to a living death.

To live alone, without a loving wife to share one's joys and sorrows, is not living at all: it is a sort of living death.

Let her die unknown—nay, make of herself a living death—that he may increase and fill the mouths of men.

During this time her condition was but a living death, though she was physically well.

What a glorious contrast to the grave-like stillness of the convent,—to the living death of a poor nun's existence!