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The English language contains numerous euphemisms related to dying, death, burial, and the people and places which deal with death.
Most commonly, one is not dying, rather, fading quickly because the end is near. Death is referred to as having passed away or departed. Deceased is a euphemism for 'dead'. Sometimes the deceased is said to have gone to a better place, but this is used primarily among the religious with a concept of heaven.
There are many euphemisms for the dead body, some polite and some profane, as well as dysphemisms such as worm food, or dead meat. The corpse was once referred to as the shroud (or house or tenement) of clay, and modern funerary workers use terms such as the loved one (title of a novel about Hollywood undertakers by Evelyn Waugh) or the dearly departed. (They themselves have given up the euphemism funeral director for grief therapist, and hold arrangement conferences with relatives.) Among themselves, mortuary technicians often refer to the corpse as the client.
Contemporary euphemisms for death tend to be quite colorful, and someone who has died is said to have passed away, passed on, bit the big one, bought the farm, croaked, given up the ghost, kicked the bucket, gone south, tits up shuffled off this mortal coil (from Hamlet), or assumed room temperature. When buried, they may be said to be pushing up daisies, sleeping with the fishes or taking a dirt nap. There are hundreds of such expressions in use.
Euthanasia also attracts euphemisms. One may put him out of his misery, or put him to sleep, the latter phrase being used primarily with non-human animals.
There are a few euphemisms for killing which are neither respectful nor playful, but rather clinical and detached. Some examples of this type are terminate, (more explicitly, terminate with extreme prejudice), wet work, to take care of one or to take them for a ride, to do them in, to off or waste someone. To cut loose (from U.S.' Sgt Massey's account of activities during the occupation of Iraq of the early 21st century) or open up on someone, means 'to shoot at with every weapon available'.
What distinguishes doublespeak from other euphemisms is its deliberate usage by governmental, military, or corporate institutions. Examples of doublespeak include:
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