Word.ws English Dictionary

return to dust

return to dust verb: to die.

Verb

return to dust (third-person singular simple present returns to dust, present participle returning to dust, simple past and past participle returned to dust)

  1. (euphemistic, figuratively) To die.
    • Alexander died: Alexander was buried: Alexander returneth into dustc. 1599–1602 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Hamlet, Prince of Denmarke”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac...

Forms of return to dust

third-person singular presentreturns to dust
present participlereturning to dust
past participlereturned to dust
pastreturned to dust

Questions about return to dust

What does return to dust mean?
Return to dust means to die.
What part of speech is return to dust?
Return to dust is a verb.
What is the past tense of return to dust?
The past tense of return to dust is returned to dust.

Words near return to dust in the dictionary

  1. return the favour
  2. return ticket
  3. return tickets
  4. return time
  5. return times
  6. return to dust
  7. return to form
  8. return to one's muttons
  9. return to one's senses
  10. return type
  11. return types

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: return to dust (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.

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