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kick the bucket

idiom

Formskicks the bucket, kicking the bucket, kicked the bucket

2 meanings of kick the bucket

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  1. 1
    idiomcolloquialeuphemistichumorousintransitive
    A joking, informal way of saying that someone dies.

    Our old goldfish kicked the bucket after three years in that little tank.

    Grandpa likes to joke that he could kick the bucket any day now.

    Similardie, perish, expire, croak, pass

    Note
  2. 2
    idiomcolloquialintransitive
    To stop working completely, with no way to fix it. Used for machines like cars, phones, and computers.

    Our washing machine kicked the bucket, so we have to wash everything by hand.

    My laptop is so old it could kick the bucket any day now.

    Similardie, fail, break, quit

    Note

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Origin

No one is sure where this phrase comes from. One old idea is that 'bucket' meant a beam that a pig was hung from before being killed, and the pig kicked it.