bite the dust
In real, traceable use. Part of the curated seed collection; community review is coming.
Meaning · English
A euphemism for dying or death.
Where it’s used:
Used
Widespread English
Examples
Football clubs and debt go hand in hand but few seem to go the same way as the hundreds of small businesses biting the dust every day.
Sugar's buy - out bites the dust
British National Corpus sentence via the MAGPIE corpus (CC BY 4.0, retrieved 2026-07-30)
Sources & notes
Imported from Wikipedia “English-language idioms” (CC BY-SA 4.0, retrieved 2026-07-29), pending review. Figurative class: Metaphor (PIE-English corpus, CC BY 4.0, retrieved 2026-07-31).
Common questions
What does “bite the dust” mean?
A euphemism for dying or death.
Is “bite the dust” formal or informal?
No register label has been reviewed yet — treat it as neutral and check the usage notes above.