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Happy Halloween! Twenty Idioms about Death


It’s said that on All Hallow’s Eve, for just one night, the spirits will rise and roam the earth again. If you’re scared – you’re not alone. The fear of death is so widespread in our culture that the English language is full of ways of referring to death that, in many cases, mean you don’t have to use the word itself. Here are twenty idioms about death:

  1. as dead as a dodo – totally dead/extinct
  2. as dead as a doornail – obviously dead
  3. belly-up – dead
  4. beyond the veil – in the unknown state of life after death
  5. dropping like flies – dying in large numbers
  6. food for worms/worm food – a dead (and buried) person
  7. gone to glory – gone to death or destruction
  8. pushing up the daisies – dead and buried
  9. six feet under – dead and buried
  10. sleeping with the fishes – dead
  11. snuffed out – killed suddenly
  12. someone’s number’s up/hour’s come – the time has come when someone is doomed to death, suffering, or disaster
  13. to be on one’s last legs – to be approaching the end of one’s life
  14. to come to/meet a sticky end – to die in an unpleasant way due to the consequences of ill-judged actions
  15. to croak – to die
  16. to have one foot in the grave – to be near death due to old age or illness
  17. to kick the bucket – to die
  18. to make the ultimate sacrifice – to give one’s life to a cause or to help someone else
  19. to pop one’s clogs – to die
  20. wiped out – extinct

Why not check out some of our other articles?

Happy Halloween!


30 Oct 2017
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