kick the bucket

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.[1]

• (Received Pronunciation, US) IPA^(key): /ˈkɪk ðə ˈbʌkɪt/

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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.

• bucket list

• Gary Martin (1997–) “Kick the bucket”, in The Phrase Finder.
• Michael Quinion (1996–2024) “Kick the bucket”, in World Wide Words.