bite the dust

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English

Pronunciation

Verb

bite the dust (third-person singular simple present bites the dust, present participle biting the dust, simple past bit the dust, past participle bitten the dust)

  1. (idiomatic, euphemistic) To die.
    • 1900, Samuel Butler, transl. The Odyssey, Book XXII., page 293
      Ulysses killed Demoptolemus, Telemachus Euryades, Eumæus Elatus, while the stockman killed Pisander. These all bit the dust, and as the others drew back into a corner Ulysses and his men rushed forward and regained their spears by drawing them from the bodies of the dead
    • 1877, Frances Fuller Victor, Eleven years in the Rocky Mountains and a life on the frontier, Chapter IX, p. 156
      Three more warriors bit the dust...
    • 2021 December 29, Stephen Roberts, “Stories and facts behind railway plaques: Didcot (1932)”, in RAIL, number 947, page 61:
      Tons of engine sheds would bite the dust with the end of steam, and many would be demolished with their time in the spotlight over. We're lucky that the one at Didcot survived into preservation.
  2. (idiomatic) To quit, or fail.
    • 1979, “London Calling”, The Clash (music):
      London calling, now don't look to us / Phony Beatlemania has bitten the dust
    My old backpack finally bit the dust the other day.

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