kick the bucket

Cultural  

1. To die: “Scarcely anyone was sorry when the old tyrant finally kicked the bucket.”

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kick the bucket Idioms  

1. Die, as in All of my goldfish kicked the bucket while we were on vacation. This moderately impolite usage has a disputed origin. Some say it refers to committing suicide by hanging, in which one stands on a bucket, fastens a rope around one's neck, and kicks the bucket away. A more likely origin is the use of bucket in the sense of “a beam from which something may be suspended” because pigs were suspended by their heels from such beams after being slaughtered, the term kick the bucket came to mean “to die.” [Colloquial; late 1700s]

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Example Sentences

Technicalities aside: It’s insurance for when you kick the bucket.

From Salon • Mar. 24, 2026

I’d still like to visit Asia at least once, maybe twice, before I kick the bucket, for example.

From MarketWatch • Dec. 31, 2025

"They all thought I was going to kick the bucket, but I won the sweepstake down the golf club."

From BBC • Sep. 25, 2024

So yes, of course, Hastings wants linear TV to kick the bucket.

From The Verge • Jul. 19, 2022

I’m betting it’s charity work, or maybe he’s been secretly chatting with Aimee and arranging a meet-up so she and I can make things right before I kick the bucket.

From "They Both Die at the End" by Adam Silvera