kick the bucket

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English

Etymology

There are many theories as to where this idiom comes from, but the Oxford English Dictionary (OED) suggests the following:

  • A person standing on a pail or bucket with their head in a slip noose would kick the bucket so as to commit suicide. The OED, however, says that this is mainly speculative;
  • An archaic use of bucket was a beam from which a pig is hung by its feet prior to being slaughtered, and to kick the bucket originally signified the pig's death throes. The OED finds this a more plausible theory.

Another theory is given by Roman Catholic Bishop Abbot Horne.

Pronunciation

Verb

kick the bucket (third-person singular simple present kicks the bucket, present participle kicking the bucket, simple past and past participle kicked the bucket)

  1. (idiomatic, euphemistic, colloquial, humorous) To die.
    Synonyms: bite the dust, buy the farm; see also Thesaurus:die
    The old horse finally kicked the bucket.
    • 2015 April 22, Sam Jordison, quoting Jan Morris, “Jan Morris talks about Venice”, in The Guardian:
      My posthumous book Allegorizings, which will go to press in London and New York the minute I kick the bucket, is loosely governed by my growing conviction that almost nothing in life is only what it seems. It contains nothing revelatory at all.
  2. (idiomatic, colloquial, of a machine) To break down such that it cannot be repaired.
    I think my sewing machine has kicked the bucket.

Related terms

Translations

References

  1. ^ Abbot Horne (1949) Relics of Popery, Catholic Truth Society London, page 6:
    After death, when a body had been laid out, the holy-water bucket was brought from the church and put at the feet of the corpse. When friends came to pray they would sprinkle the body with holy water it is easy to see how such a saying as "kicking the bucket" came about. Many other explanations of this saying have been given by persons who are unacquainted with Catholic custom

Further reading