kicked the bucket
Met one's end
Kicked the bucket is an informal, slightly humorous way of saying someone died: Old Mr. Henderson finally kicked the bucket.
The phrase softens death through indirection while acknowledging it plainly—neither solemn nor disrespectful.
It applies only to humans and occasionally animals, never to abstract things that end.
- pass awayEuphemism for dying
- deceasedNo longer living
- dieStop being alive
- gave up the ghostDied or stopped functioning
- expireCease to be valid
perish · departed · bite the dust · met their maker · pushing up daisies · demise · croaked · succumbed · defunct · snuffed it · dying · bought the farm · shuffled off this mortal coil · breathed their last · checked out · death · crossed over · went to glory
- deathdead, deceased, corpse, mortality, demise
- brokenbroken, busted, broken down, out of order, not working
- life statusalive, dead, deceased, living, dying
kicked the bucketliving
Currently having breath
alive · alive and kicking · alive and well · full of life · survived
kick, kicked, kicks, kicking, kicker, kickers, bucket, buckets, bucketed