Etymology Journal ยท B
Bite the dust
Meaning
- To fail, break, or die. It is a colorful way of describing the end of a physical object's usefulness or a person's participation in an activity.
Dramatic, blunt
Used in a sentence
- My old laptop finally bit the dust right in the middle of my report.
- That transmission bit the dust after only fifty thousand miles.
- If we do not get the engine running, our racing dreams will bite the dust.
The backstory
This phrase appeared in the nineteenth century, likely inspired by the image of a fallen soldier collapsing onto the dusty ground of a battlefield.
Heard in
Nationwide
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