bite the dust
Verb

bite the dust

  1. (idiomatic, euphemistic) To die.
    • 1900, Samuel Butler, transl. The Odyssey, Book XXII., page 293
      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 dead
    • 1877, Frances Fuller Victor, Eleven years in the Rocky Mountains and a life on the frontier, Chapter IX, p. 156
      Three more warriors bit the dust...
  2. (idiomatic) To quit, or fail.
    My old backpack finally bit the dust the other day.
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