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Other projects...: Riprore, which focuses on the heart of gangland Los Angeles, where a gruesome discovery sparks a frenetic homicide investigation, but underneath the surface lurks a darkness that leads to the end of days. (source)

My first thought is that "the end of days" refers to doomsday, the end of the world. The sentence talks of a darkness which is destructive and which dooms the city/world.

However, a The Free Dictionary page defines "to the end of days" as forever. By this definition, the sentence means that the darkness is forever and perpetual. Which understanding is correct?

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    I think your interpretation is absolutely correct. The reason why is because the expression to the end of days as used in your quote seems to be different from the one you found in the Free Dictionary. Didn't you notice that it really says to the end of one's days there and not to the end of days. And that's what makes all the difference.
    – Michael Rybkin
    Commented Nov 12, 2018 at 17:40
  • Please bear in mind that "the end of days" or "end times" is a Biblical idea that refers to the end of world, basically.
    – Lambie
    Commented Nov 12, 2018 at 21:47

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The best reading is that it means "doomsday" in this context. "Leads to" implies a destination, a terminus.

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  • @JasonBassford the second sentence is emphasising that the "leads to" context means that the interpretation of "doomsday" or the apocalypse is more likely, since the alternative, "leads to forever", is nonsensical.
    – Nathan Griffiths
    Commented Nov 12, 2018 at 18:56
  • @Jason But I was not commenting on the phrase "to the end of one's days." Obviously, that means the time of a specidic person's death, which is admittedly a very terminal terminus with respect to the individual involved. But the "end of days" is a relatively common locution to speak of the end of the world, a different kind of terminus. It is also a common locution for "forever." But it would be weird to say "leads to forever."
    – Jeff Morrow
    Commented Nov 12, 2018 at 19:01
  • @JeffMorrow Yes. What you just said in your comment leads to the conclusion that it's doomsday. But the second sentence in your answer is not really relevant. (It's not the reason that the phrase in the question is talking about doomsday.) Replacing your second sentence with "the 'end of days' is a relatively common locution to speak of the end of the world" would make your answer much clearer.
    – Jason Bassford
    Commented Nov 12, 2018 at 19:03
  • @Jason I was not saying that "leads to the end of one's days" would imply doomsday because that was neither the question posed nor the phrase quoted. The question posed was whether in context the phrase "to the end of days" meant "forever" or "doomsday." I have never seen the phrase "end of days" used as a synonym for an individual's death.
    – Jeff Morrow
    Commented Nov 12, 2018 at 19:10
  • @JeffMorrow You keep misunderstanding me. Just because leads to implies a destination does not imply that doomsday is the destination. It doesn't mean it is so because the phrase leads to was used. But that's what your second sentence on its own implies. The fact that leads to exists, has nothing whatsoever to do with the fact that the end of days means doomsday.
    – Jason Bassford
    Commented Nov 12, 2018 at 21:03
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From Wikipedia:

The end time (also called end times, end of time, end of days, last days, final days, or eschaton) is a future time-period described variously in the eschatologies of several world religions (both Abrahamic and non-Abrahamic), which believe that world events will reach a final climax.

The Abrahamic faiths maintain a linear cosmology, with end-time scenarios containing themes of transformation and redemption. In Judaism, the term "end of days" makes reference to the Messianic Age and includes an in-gathering of the exiled Jewish diaspora, the coming of the Messiah, the resurrection of the righteous, and the world to come. Some sects of Christianity depict the end time as a period of tribulation that precedes the second coming of Christ, who will face the Antichrist along with his power structure and usher in the Kingdom of God.

The Merriam-Webster definition of doomsday is as follows:

1 : a day of final judgment
2 : a time of catastrophic destruction and death

Therefore, your interpretation of the end of days as meaning doomsday is accurate.

As mentioned in a comment under your question, the Free Dictionary entry you link to refers to a syntactically similar phrase but one that means something quite different.

In the following quotation, I have put the possessives used in bold text.

to the end of (one's) days (redirected from to the end of our days)

Forever; until the day that one dies. For his heinous crimes, the murderer is going to be locked away to the end of his days. Baby, you know that I'll love you to the end of my days!

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  • It's a prophecy found in the Bible in different forms in many places in it. I'm uv-ing this answer.
    – Lambie
    Commented Nov 12, 2018 at 21:48

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