bite the dust
verb1
Euphemistic, Idiomatic To die.
- 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 dead1900, Samuel Butler, transl. The Odyssey, Book XXII., page 293
- Three more warriors bit the dust...1877, Frances Fuller Victor, Eleven years in the Rocky Mountains and a life on the frontier, Chapter IX, p. 156
1 more example
- 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.2021 December 29, Stephen Roberts, “Stories and facts behind railway plaques: Didcot (1932)”, in RAIL, number 947, page 61:
2
Idiomatic To quit, or fail.
- My old backpack finally bit the dust the other day.
- London calling, now don't look to us / Phony Beatlemania has bitten the dust1979, “London Calling”, The Clash (music):
- Derived terms
- another one bites the dust