‘Kick the Bucket’

Definition: Die (Source: New Oxford American Dictionary)

No one really knows for certain where the phrase ‘kick the bucket’ originates from. One theory says that when people would hang themselves or others with a noose, they’d put a bucket under the feet and kick it away.

However, there is another theory: from 16th century England, the word ‘bucket’ also meant a wooden beam or yoke that was used to hang things. Animals would be slaughtered, hanging on these wooden frames (i.e. ‘buckets’), and after death they would have spasms, causing them to ‘kick the bucket’.

Whatever the origin, ‘kick the bucket’ means one thing — death.