Expression | Definition | Context | Notes |
41%[1] | To commit suicide | Slang | Usually directed at transgender people. Refers to the attempted suicide rate of trans people.[2] |
Die in a hole | To die | Slang | Usually used when annoyed at someone |
The Big Adios | To die | Euphemistic slang | Ex: "Live life to the fullest before the big Adios!" |
Reset character | To die | Euphemistic slang | Refers to video games where "resetting one's character" involves deliberately killing them and letting them respawn or load from a save. |
It's clipped | To die/be killed | Slang | New York Slang for saying something is over. |
On the wrong side of the grass | Dead | Euphemistic slang | Refers to the practice of burying the dead. Such individuals are below the grass as opposed to above it, hence being on the "wrong side". |
Get smoked | To be killed | Slang |
An hero | To commit suicide | Slang | Related to the suicide of Mitchell Henderson. A eulogy dedicated to him on MySpace allegedly made the typo "an hero", which was later popularized by the image board 4chan. Its grammatical use is ill-defined. |
At peace[3] | Dead | Euphemistic | |
At rest[3] | Dead | Polite | |
Augered in | Died via aircraft crash | Slang | As documented in The Right Stuff by Tom Wolfe |
Belly up[3] | Dead | Informal | The orientation of fish when dead |
Beyond the grave[3] | After death | Neutral | In reference to communication with the dead |
Beyond the veil[4] | The mysterious place after death | Neutral | Originally used to refer to the 'veil' that hides the innermost sanctuary of the Temple in Jerusalem. Sometimes refers to just a mysterious place. |
Big sleep[4] | To die or be killed | Euphemistic | Could be in reference to Raymond Chandler's 'The Big Sleep' |
Bite the dust[4] | To die or be killed | Informal | Also means 'failed' |
Bite the big one[4] | To die | Informal | North American. |
Born asleep | Stillbirth | Neutral | |
Breathe one's last[3] | To die | Literary | |
Brown bread[5] | Dead | Slang | Cockney rhyming slang for 'dead'. |
Bought the farm[4] | Died | Slang | Also, shortened to 'bought it' |
Bucket list | List of things to do before dying | Popular culture derivation | Derived from the older phrase "kick the bucket"; popularized by the 2007 film The Bucket List |
Cargo 200 | Corpses of soldiers | Military slang | Military code word used in the Soviet Union and the post-Soviet states referring to the transportation of military casualties |
Cark-it[6] | To die | Informal, another version of 'croaked it'; common in UK, Ireland, Australia & New Zealand | The guy was running, had a heart attack and carked it. |
Cash in one's chips[4] | To die | Informal, euphemistic[7] | Redemption for cash of gambling counters at the end of a game |
Catching the bus[8] | To suicide | Slang | Originated from the Usenet newsgroup alt.suicide.holiday |
Charon | Ferryman of Hades | Neutral | Crosses the rivers Styx and Acheron which divide the world of the living from the world of the dead |
Check out | To die | Euphemism | |
Choir Eternal | To die | Humorous | British. "Join the choir eternal" Monty Python Dead Parrot Sketch. |
Come to a sticky end[3] | To die in a way that is considered unpleasant | Humorous | British. Also 'to meet a sticky end'. |
Counting worms[7] | Dead | Euphemistic | |
Croak[9] | To die | Slang | |
Crossed the Jordan | Died | Biblical/Revivalist | The deceased has entered the Promised Land (i.e. Heaven) |
Curtains | Death | Theatrical | The final curtain at a dramatic performance |
Dead as a dodo[4] | Dead | Informal | The 'dodo', flightless bird from the island of Mauritius hunted to extinction |
Dead as a doornail[3] | Obviously dead | Informal | Charles Dickens used this phrase at the beginning of A Christmas Carol. |
Death by misadventure | Avoidable death | Formal/legal | Death resulting from risk-taking |
Decapitation | The act of killing by removing a person's head, usually with an axe or other bladed instrument | | A much-favoured method of execution used around the world. Notable examples include the French Revolution via guillotine, and the Tudor times using an axe. |
Deleted | Murdered | Literary | |
Defenestration | The act of killing by throwing a person out of a window | | |
Departed[3] | To die | Neutral | |
Destroyed | To die | Neutral | Usually refers to the humane killing of an animal |
Die with one's boots on | To die while able, or during activity, as opposed to in infirmity or while asleep. | Euphemistic | Old West usage: To die in a gunfight, as with the film They Died with Their Boots On. Also connotes dying in combat. British; cf. Iron Maiden's Die With Your Boots On.
|
Didn't make it | Killed in action (see below) | Euphemistic | |
Done for[3] | About to die | Neutral | |
Drop dead[3] | Die suddenly | Neutral | also slang aggressive dismissal |
Dropping like flies[10] | Dying in droves | Simile | also falling ill in numbers |
Drop the Body | Died | Euphemistic | Used by new-age spiritually minded people instead of the term died, suggesting that, while the person's body died, his or her spirit lives on |
Entered the homeland | 1950's Grave England | Euphemistic | |
Eaten a twinkie[citation needed] | Die | Humorous | Relates to a perception among Australians that American food (Twinkies being a quintessential example) is toxic, due to its use of such ingredients (not used in Australian-made products) as high-fructose corn syrup. |
Erased | Murdered | Literary | |
Euthanasia | Assisted suicide | Formal | |
Expire | Natural end | Neutral | |
Exterminate | Kill | Directive | Exclaimed by Daleks (from Doctor Who) when ordered to kill |
Extinct | When a species as a whole ceases to exist | Formal | |
Fading away[3] | To be weakening and close to death | Neutral | Also to be 'fading fast' |
Fall off one's perch[11] | To die | Informal | |
Fall off the toilet | To die, often in an untimely or unexpected manner | Informal | |
Food for worms[4] | Someone who is dead | Slang | Also 'worm food' |
Fratricide | Murder among siblings | Formal | |
Free one's horses | To die | Neutral | |
Game end | To kill | Informal | |
Genocide | To completely exterminate all of a kind | Formal | |
Give up the ghost[4] | To die | Neutral | The soul leaving the body |
Glue factory | To die | Neutral | Usually refers to the death of a horse |
Gone to a better place[12] | To die | Euphemistic | Heaven |
Go over the Big Ridge[13] | To die | Unknown | |
Go bung[4] | To die | Informal | Australian. Also means 'to fail' or 'to go bankrupt'. |
Go for a Burton | To die/break irreparably | Informal | British, from WWII. |
Go to Davy Jones's locker[4] | To drown or otherwise die at sea | Euphemistic | Peregrine Pickle describes Davy Jones as 'the fiend that presides over all the evil spirits of the deep'. |
Go to the big [place] in the sky | To die and go to heaven | Informal | A place in the afterlife paralleling the deceased's life, such as "Big ranch in the sky".[14] |
Go home in a box[15] | To be shipped to one's birthplace, dead | Slang, euphemistic[7] | |
Go out with one's boots on/with a bang/in style | To die while doing something enjoyed | Informal | |
Go to, or head for, the last roundup[13] | To die | Euphemistic | Associated with dying cowboys, along with "Going to that big ranch in the sky." |
Go to one's reward[4] | To die | Euphemistic | Final reckoning, just deserts after death |
Go to one's watery grave[3] | To die of drowning | Literary | |
Go to a Texas cakewalk[13] | To be hanged | Unknown | |
Go the way of all flesh[4] | To die | Neutral | |
Go west[4] | To be killed or lost | Informal | Refers to the sun setting at the west. |
The Grim Reaper[4] | Personification of death | Cultural | A skeleton with a scythe, often in a cloak |
Hand in one's dinner pail[4] | To die | Informal | No longer required at workmen's canteen |
Happy hunting ground | Dead | Informal | Used to describe the afterlife according to Native Americans |
Hara-kiri | (Ritual) suicide by disembowelment | Japanese | See Seppuku. Often misspelled as Hari-kari. |
Have one foot in the grave[4] | To be close to death because of illness or age | Informal, sometimes humorous | |
History | Dead | Informal | Usually interpreted as "to be history." |
(Get) Hit by a bus | To die suddenly and prematurely | Informal |
Hop on the last rattler[7] | To die | Euphemistic | "Rattler" is a slang expression for a freight train. |
Hop the twig[4] | To die | Informal | Also 'to hop the stick'. Pagan belief that to jump a stick on the ground leads to the Afterworld. |
In Abraham's bosom[4] | In heaven | Neutral | From the Holy Bible, Luke 16:22. |
Join the choir invisible[16] | To die | Neutral | From an 1867 poem by George Eliot |
Join the great majority[4] | To die | Euphemistic | First used by Edward Young, but the phrase 'the majority' is extremely old. |
Justifiable homicide | Homicide | Formal | A deliberate homicide that is not a criminal act because the surrounding circumstances justified the use of deadly force. Defending oneself against a deadly attack, for example, or conducting a legally ordered execution. |
Kermit (suicide)[17] | To commit suicide, usually via falling from a great height | Humorous | Originated from a remixed video of Kermit the Frog from Sesame Street and a Kermit the Frog doll falling off a building.[18] |
Kick the bucket[4] | To die | Informal | In suicidal hanging.[19] Also 'kick off' (American).[3] |
Kick the calendar | To die | Slang, informal | Polish saying. 'Calendar' implies somebody's time of death (kicking at particular moment of time) |
Killed In Action (KIA) | Death of military personnel due to enemy action | Military language, official and informal use | |
King of Terrors[4] | Personification of death | Neutral | Of Biblical origin, found in Job 18:14 Also refers to death itself |
Kiss one's arse goodbye | Prepare to die | Slang | |
Late | Posthumous | |
Lights out | To die | Slang | Going into Eternal Oblivion |
Live on a farm (upstate) | To die | Euphemism | Usually referring to the death of a pet, especially if the owners are parents with children, i.e. "The dog went to live on a farm." |
Lose one's life[3] | To die in an accident or violent event | Neutral | |
Lost | To die in an accident or violent event | |
Make the ultimate sacrifice[3] | To die while fighting for a cause | Formal | Also 'make the supreme sacrifice' |
Matricide | Mother murdered | Formal | |
Meet one's maker[4] | To die | Euphemistic | According to Christian belief, soul meets God for final judgment |
Murder Death Kill (MDK) | Homicide | TV/Movie | From 1993 film Demolition Man |
Night | The state of death | Euphemism | From the poem by Dylan Thomas, "Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night." |
Not long for this world[3] | Will die soon; have little time left to live | Old-fashioned | |
Not with us anymore | Dead | Euphemistic | |
Off on a boat[7] | To die | Euphemistic | Viking |
Off the hooks[4] | Dead | Informal | British. Not to be confused with 'off the hook' (no longer in trouble). |
On one's deathbed[3] | Dying | Neutral | |
On one's last legs[4] | About to die | Informal | |
One's hour has come[3] | About to die | Literary | |
One's number is up[3] | One is going to die | Slang | |
Oofed | To die | Humorous | Popularized from the video game Roblox; when referring to suicide, one may "oof themselves". |
Pass away[3] | To die | Euphemism; polite | Also 'to pass on' |
Pass in one's alley[4] | To die | Informal | Australian |
Patricide | Murders father | Formal | |
Pay the ultimate price[3] | To die for a cause or principle | Neutral | Similar to "To make the ultimate sacrifice" |
Peg out[3] | To die | Slang | British. Also means 'to stop working' |
Peppered | To be shot to death | Slang | Usually refers to being shot multiple times (i.e. peppered with bullet holes). |
Perish | Synonym for death | (neutral) | |
Pop one's clogs[4] | To die | Humorous,[3] Informal[4] | British. "Pop" is English slang for "pawn." A 19th-century working man might tell his family to take his clothes to the pawn shop to pay for his funeral, with his clogs among the most valuable items. |
Promoted to Glory | Death of a Salvationist | Formal | Salvation Army terminology. |
Pull the plug[4] | To kill, or allow to die | Euphemism | Removal of life support, such as turning off the power, or "pull the plug" on a ventilator keeping someone alive. |
Push up daisies[4] | To have died and be buried under the ground | Humorous,[3] Euphemistic[7] | Early 20th century—also 'under the daisies', and 'turn one's toes up to the daisies', which date back to the mid-19th century. (See 'to turn up one's toes' below.) |
Put down/put to sleep | To be euthanised | Euphemism | Euthanasia of an animal |
Put one to the sword | To kill someone | Literary | |
Rainbow Bridge | Dead | Euphemism | Usually referring to the death of a pet, e.g. "Crossing the Rainbow Bridge." |
Ride the pale horse[7] | To die | Euphemistic | In the Biblical passage Revelation 6:8, a pale horse is ridden by Death, one of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse. The expression "behold a pale horse" has been used as the title of a 1964 film by Fred Zinnemann and a 1991 book by ufologist William Milton Cooper. |
Run one through | To kill someone, usually by stabbing | Euphemism | |
Send one to Eternity or to the Promised Land | To kill someone | Literary | |
Go/send to Belize | To die/to kill somebody | Euphemism | From Season 5 of the television series Breaking Bad |
Send (or go) to the farm | To die | Euphemism | Usually referring to the death of a pet, especially if the owners are parents of young children e.g. "The dog was sent to a farm." |
Sewerslide | To commit suicide | Humorous | 21st century slang. Likely intenved to circumvent internet censorship. |
Shade | The state of death | Euphemism | From the poem "Invictus," by William Ernest Henley: "Beyond this place of wrath and tears, Looms but the horror of the shade." |
Shake hands with Elvis | To die | Euphemism | Shake hands with a well-known person who has (presumably) died. |
Shuffle off this mortal coil[3] | To die | Humorous, Literary[4] | from the To be, or not to be soliloquy from Shakespeare's Hamlet. |
Six feet under[4] | Dead | Informal | Six feet is the traditional depth of a grave |
Sleeping with the fishes | Murdered, then disposed of in water. | Slang | Popularized by The Godfather |
Slipped away | To die peacefully | Slang | Possibly originated from the poem "Death is Nothing at All" written by Reverend Henry Scott Holland in 1910 following the death of King Edward VII. |
Snuffed out | Murdered | Literary | As in extinguishing a candle, or simply "snuff it" |
Step off | To die | Informal, euphemistic | Character Ron Birdwell in the movie The Late Show (1977): "I'm always sorry to hear any of God's creatures stepping off." |
Struck down[3] | To be killed by an illness | Neutral | Usually passive |
Suicide | To take one's own life | Formal | |
Sunset | Dead | Formal | |
Swim with concrete shoes | Gangster murder | Slang | |
Take a dirt nap[20] | To die and be buried | Slang | |
Take a last bow[7] | To die | Slang | |
Take one's own life | To commit suicide | Euphemism | |
Take/took the easy way out[21] | To commit suicide | Euphemism | Based on the original meaning of the phrase of taking the path of least resistance. |
Take the last train to glory[4] | To die | Euphemism | An idiom Christian in origin. |
Tango Uniform [citation needed] | Dead, irreversibly broken | Military slang | This is "T.U." in the ICAO spelling alphabet, an abbreviation for Tits Up (aeroplane crashed) |
Terminate; especially, terminate with extreme prejudice | To kill; especially when carrying out an assassination as part of a covert operation. | Euphemism; military slang | Originated during the Vietnam War; later popularized by the films Apocalypse Now and The Terminator |
Toaster Bath | Commit suicide via a toaster in a bathtub | Slang | |
Topped yourself | Committed suicide | Slang | |
Turn up one's toes[4] | To die | Slang | An alternative of 'turn one's toes up to the daisies' (see 'push up daisies' above.) |
Unalive (also Un-Alive) | To die, or to kill | Euphemistic slang | A euphemism that developed in slang on social media, particularly TikTok, to avoid censorship of the words "kill" and "die." |
Unsubscribe from life | To die | Euphemistic | 21st century slang |
Up and die | Unexpected death, leaving loose ends | Euphemistic | |
Waste[22] | To kill | Slang | |
Wearing a pine overcoat (i.e. a wooden coffin)[citation needed] | Dead | Slang | Idiom used by American gangsters of the early 20th century. |
Wiped out | Dead, usually if multiple individuals die | Neutral | |
Worm food or worm bait | Dead | Slang | |
To join the whisperers | in the proses of death | Euphemism | From the television series Lost: the Whispers were voices of those who died, yet were unable to move on and therefore remained on the island as whispers |
Pump full of lead | Shot to death | Informal | |