mortal coils
Life's binding burdens
Mortal coils refers to the troubles, turmoil, and entanglements of earthly life.
The phrase comes from Shakespeare's Hamlet—"shuffled off this mortal coil"—where it means the bustle and confusion bound up with being alive.
To shuffle off one's mortal coil is to die.
The phrase appears almost exclusively in literary or deliberately elevated contexts: When we have shuffled off this mortal coil, what dreams may come?
- lifeAnimate state
- HamletDanish prince's revenge tragedy
- to be or not to beExistential dilemma phrased dramatically
- soulInnermost animating essence
- ShakespeareElizabethan dramatist and poet
shuffle off · life and death · finitude · human condition · ephemerality · this too shall pass · flesh · suffering · beings · exit · decay · dust to dust · transience · impermanence · shroud · heartbeat · grief · travail
mortal coilsafterlife
Existence beyond mortality
eternal rest · heaven · nirvana · paradise · the beyond
mortal coilspeace
Freedom from disturbance
eternal peace · rest · serenity · tranquility · stillness
mortal coilsimmortality
Exemption from death
eternal life · everlasting life · deathlessness · eternity · timelessness
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