# What does ‘kick the bucket’ mean?

To “kick the bucket” means to die. Brewer's discusses two folk explanations: one from the beam ('bucket', in an old English sense) on which a slaughtered pig was hung, whose feet would kick, and another involving a person standing on a bucket before hanging themselves. Neither is proven, and the origin is best treated as uncertain.

## What it means

- Brewer's discusses two folk explanations: one from the beam ('bucket', in an old English sense) on which a slaughtered pig was hung, whose feet would kick, and another involving a person standing on a bucket before hanging themselves. Neither is proven, and the origin is best treated as uncertain.

## Action steps

1. Slangy, mildly disrespectful.
2. Example: The old lawnmower finally kicked the bucket.

## Sources

- [Brewer's Dictionary of Phrase and Fable (1898) — Internet Archive scan](https://archive.org/details/brewers-dictionary-of-phrase-and-fable)

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