your number's up
Preserved but no longer current.
You are in a very serious position or, sometimes, about to die. A soldier's phrase; in the American army a soldier who has just been killed or has died is said to have "lost his mess number." An older phrase used in the British Navy was "to lose the number of his mess.
Era: ca. 1898 (Victorian)
Sources & notes
Reproduced from Brewer’s Dictionary of Phrase and Fable (1898 edition, public domain; archive.org, retrieved 2026-07-31; OCR text, minor errors possible). Reflects the scholarship and attitudes of its era.
Common questions
What does “your number's up” mean?
You are in a very serious position or, sometimes, about to die. A soldier's phrase; in the American army a soldier who has just been killed or has died is said to have "lost his mess number." An older phrase used in the British Navy was "to lose the number of his mess.
Is “your number's up” formal or informal?
No register label has been reviewed yet — treat it as neutral and check the usage notes above.