The Collaborative International Dictionary
Death's-head \Death's"-head`\, n. A naked human skull as the emblem of death; the head of the conventional personification of death.
I had rather be married to a death's-head with a bone
in his mouth.
--Shak.
Death's-head moth (Zo["o]l.), a very large European moth ( Acherontia atropos), so called from a figure resembling a human skull on the back of the thorax; -- called also death's-head sphinx.
Wiktionary
alt. A human skull, as symbol of death. n. A human skull, as symbol of death.
Usage examples of "death's-head".
But there was a single Acherontia atropos, the death's-head hawkmoth, the pattern of gray and brown and pale yellow scales on the back of its thorax forming the image of a human skull.
As she stepped out of the garment, her dirt-and-sweat-edged breasts swayed, and their silver nipple rings and antiqued death's-head ornaments tinkled sweetly.
Hornbeck bit at the carpet to staunch his tremors, going deep purple, then subsiding into shades of crimson, pink, death's-head white.
He saw their mouths working, death's-head jaws grimacing and snapping, the leather of mummied faces cracking where unnatural stress was applied to otherwise inanimate, ex-aminate tissues.
He is expecting to see an aquiline SS officer in a black uniform, jackboots, death's-head insignia, and riding crop, perhaps twiddling a pair of thumbscrews in his black leather gloves.