kick the bucket
UK/ˈkɪk ðə ˈbʌkɪt/
kick the bucket verb: to die.
Verb
kick the bucket (third-person singular simple present kicks the bucket, present participle kicking the bucket, simple past and past participle kicked the bucket)
- To die.
- The old horse finally kicked the bucket.
- My posthumous book Allegorizings, which will go to press in London and New York the minute I kick the bucket, is loosely governed by my growing conviction that almost nothing in life is only what it seems. It contains nothing revelatory at all.2015 April 22, Sam Jordison, quoting Jan Morris, “Jan Morris talks about Venice”, in The Guardian
- Synonyms:
- kick it, bite the dust, buy the farm, assume room temperature, auger in, be called home, be gathered to one's fathers, be like the the One, be no more, be with Jesus
- To break down such that it cannot be repaired.
- I think my sewing machine has kicked the bucket.
kick the bucket meaning in Tamil, Urdu, Telugu and Kannada
kick the bucket in Tamil
- இறந்து போதல், சீர்செய்ய முடியாதபடி பழுதடைதல்
kick the bucket in Urdu
- مرنا, وفات پانا
kick the bucket in Telugu
- to die
- బాల్చీ తన్ను bālcī tannu
kick the bucket in Kannada
- to die
- ಸಾಯು sāyu
- to break down beyond repair
- ಸರಿಪಡಿಸಲಾಗದಷ್ಟು ಹಾಳಾದ saripaḍisalāgadaṣṭu hāḷāda
More languagesFewer languages
- kick the bucket in Persian
- ریق رحمت را سر کشیدن riq-e rahmat râ sar kešidan
Synonyms of kick the bucket
- kick it
- bite the dust
- buy the farm
- assume room temperature
- auger in
- be called home
- be like the the One
- be no more
- be with Jesus
- be with the Lord
30 more synonymsFewer synonyms
- bite the big one
- bite the biscuit
- buy it
- cark it
- cash in
- cash in one's chips
- check out
- close one's eyes for the last time
- code
- conk out
- croak
- cross over
- cross the Great Divide
- cross the Styx
- darken
- decease
- decompose
- dematerialize
- depart
- disincarnate
- draw one's last breath
- drop off the hooks
- exit
- expire
- fall off the twig
- flatline
- give one's all
- give up the ghost
- go for a burton
- go out
Forms of kick the bucket
| third-person singular present | kicks the bucket |
|---|---|
| present participle | kicking the bucket |
| past participle | kicked the bucket |
| past | kicked the bucket |
Origin of kick the bucket
There are many theories as to where this idiom comes from, but the Oxford English Dictionary (OED) suggests the following: * A person standing on a pail or bucket with their head in a slip noose would kick the bucket so as to commit suicide. The OED, however, says that this is mainly speculative; * An archaic use of bucket was a beam from which a pig is hung by its feet prior to being slaughtered, and to kick the bucket originally signified the pig's death throes. The OED finds this a more plausible theory. Another theory is given by Roman Catholic Bishop Abbot Horne: After death, when a body had been laid out, […] the holy-water bucket was brought from the church and put at the feet of the corpse. When friends came to pray […] they would sprinkle the body with holy water […] it is easy to see how such a saying as "kicking the bucket" came about. Many other explanations of this saying have been given by persons who are unacquainted with Catholic custom […]
Questions about kick the bucket
- What does kick the bucket mean?
- Kick the bucket means to die.
- What is kick the bucket in Tamil?
- Kick the bucket in Tamil is இறந்து போதல், சீர்செய்ய முடியாதபடி பழுதடைதல். See Kick the bucket meaning in Tamil.
- What part of speech is kick the bucket?
- Kick the bucket is a verb.
- How do you pronounce kick the bucket?
- Kick the bucket is pronounced /ˈkɪk ðə ˈbʌkɪt/ (UK).
- What is the past tense of kick the bucket?
- The past tense of kick the bucket is kicked the bucket.
Words near kick the bucket in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: kick the bucket (page history and authors); kick the bucket (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); kick the bucket (Urdu Wiktionary) (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
Last updated:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-kick the bucket.ogg, en-au-kick the bucket.ogg.
Cite this entry: “kick the bucket.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/kick_the_bucket. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.