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Clichés about Death

Fill in the missing words to these clichés about the ultimate end.
Quiz idea: bananas68
Quiz by Quizmaster
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Last updated: December 12, 2019
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First submittedMarch 14, 2013
Times taken56,667
Average score70.0%
Rating4.15
4:00
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Cliché
Kick the bucket
Bite the dust
Stick a fork in it
Another nail in the coffin
Give up the ghost
Meet your maker
Bought the farm
Cliché
Six feet under
That's all she wrote
Go out in a blaze of glory
Pushing up daisies
It ain't over till the fat lady sings
Gone belly up
One foot on a banana peel,
the other in the grave
Cliché
Deader than a doornail
In Davy Jones' locker (drowned)
Sleeps with the fishes (drowned)
In a better place
Breathed one's last
Rest in peace
+5
Level 74
Apr 24, 2013
Funny idea for a quiz. I could only think of the less proper alternative for belly up.
+1
Level 48
Apr 16, 2017
Yeah, even though it's only four letters long, by the time I had typed the 'i' I was already thinking 'oh it's probably the other one'. Yes, I think that fast.
+2
Level 60
May 10, 2022
Or you type that slow...
+4
Level 49
Apr 24, 2013
100% --- I am way too good at cliche.... (sigh) It took me a minute to get bite the dust, though. I kept trying bite the bullet.
+2
Level ∞
Jul 8, 2015
Bite the bullet is not correct:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bite_the_bullet

+6
Level 62
Nov 4, 2015
Wikipedia is a perfectly legitimate source for information.
+5
Level 51
Feb 26, 2016
"Bite the bullet" refers to doing something you'd rather not...toughing it out. Refers to the custom of biting on a lead bullet while the field surgeon tended to your battle wounds.
+7
Level 38
Aug 6, 2016
Perfectly legitimate indeed. In the scholarly world we always say, don't cite Wikipedia, but when looking up info, we always go for Wikipedia. Like with everything one just has to check the sources.
+6
Level 71
Jun 8, 2017
Whenever someone disagrees with an answer they say "Wikipedia is not a source' then they quote Wikipedia when it suits them.
+2
Level 89
Dec 18, 2018
I'll check Wikipedia, but won't cite it. I'll check the source they reference and cite that if legitimate, not the anonymous pulse holder who wrote and counter-wrote the article with 1,317 other random passers by.
+1
Level 36
Aug 3, 2019
kind of ironic really, thinking about it logically id rather bite the dust then bite a damn bullet.
+2
Level 66
Feb 7, 2023
I wouldn't. The dust is all, well, dusty, and certainly doesn't taste nor feel good in your mouth.
+2
Level 58
Nov 10, 2016
I tried "big one," then "bullet" before hitting "dust." But bite the bullet does not mean die. It means to do something unpleasant for a greater reward later or for the common good or simply because you should.
+3
Level 66
Jul 23, 2018
If "bite the big one" had been the intended answer I would probably have gotten it eventually, but I got "bite the dust" much faster with a little assistance from Freddie Mercury.
+6
Level 67
Apr 24, 2013
"Sleeps with the fishes" does not mean drowned, but disposed of in a body of water. That was Luca Brasi's fate: after being garroted, Sollozzo and Tattaglia saw that his body was dumped in the East River or some other nearby river or bay.
+2
Level 82
Apr 30, 2013
It could also mean that you like fish stix. Like Kanye West.
+2
Level 72
Apr 12, 2016
I am NOT a gay fish!
+4
Level 48
Apr 16, 2017
Hey, I don't understand that joke.
+1
Level 12
May 5, 2014
Or it means swimming with the fishes.
+2
Level 37
Oct 7, 2018
To Baltimorean: A Shout Out to a fellow "Godfather" fan!
+3
Level 46
Apr 24, 2013
I'm not sure whether the fact that I got them all is good or bad...
+2
Level 12
May 5, 2014
It means you can do cliches but this is scary
+1
Level 67
Aug 18, 2021
...
+1
Level 30
Apr 25, 2013
I also thought bite the BULLET and then give up the GOOD FIGHT...
+1
Level 62
Apr 25, 2013
Bite the bullet is what I though also
+1
Level 68
Apr 26, 2013
Could you accept bite the bullet?
+3
Level 82
Apr 30, 2013
^yeah, what this guy said. "Bite the bullet" means you get over your anxiety or you accept the consequence for something and find the nerve to do it. It has nothing to do with dying... unless maybe you were trying to find the nerve to shoot yourself. But usually it's not that literal.
+2
Level 75
Oct 31, 2015
Yeah, what both guys said. I thought bite the bullet referred to giving a patient a bullet to bite on while someone did a painful procedure such as digging out shrapnel or a bullet. It came to mean facing up to something unpleasant in order to get it over with.
+1
Level 37
Jun 8, 2017
Precisely! - Also, to go "belly up" usually means to fail (as in a business venture or go bankrupt) not die.
+2
Level 61
Jul 2, 2018
"belly up" refers to how one finds fish at their EOL... like the pet goldfish eventually ends up in practically every sitcom.
+2
Level 89
Dec 18, 2018
Well I typed [breasts] up which does mean a dead body and it accepted that.
+1
Level 26
May 17, 2013
I tried Bite the Bullet after which I was flummoxed, I mean what else right heh.

I also tried Bought the Ticket, you know, as in the one you get from the ferryman ;)

+1
Level 71
Nov 4, 2015
I didn't know you had to buy a ticket from the ferryman,....... now busy saving up!
+5
Level 72
May 28, 2014
Didn't anybody else also think of "Another one bites the dust"? That's the only reason I got the answer.
+2
Level 89
Dec 18, 2018
🎼🎸🎵🎵🎵🎶🎶🎵
+1
Level 65
Oct 31, 2015
Walk the plank should be included too, goes well with the pirate flag :)
+1
Level 55
Oct 31, 2015
I think the QM's acceptance of the rude going ____ up should be rescinded. Like Bite the Bullet, it doesn't really mean dying, in this case it just means going catastrophically wrong.
+2
Level 66
Jan 18, 2019
Nah, the idea behind the expression is not that every time one is tits up it's bad--sometimes, it's quite good!--but that it's bad because one is stuck that way permanently, as when dead. Otherwise, where would the expression come from?
+2
Level 38
Nov 3, 2015
its BOUGHT THE FARM.

you're all welcome

+10
Level 84
Mar 27, 2016
How is "It ain't over till the fat lady sings" a cliché about death? The fat lady sings at the opera, not at a funeral. This expression just means that it's not over until it's over.
+1
Level 69
May 25, 2017
+1
+2
Level 58
Apr 15, 2016
I always though stick a fork in it was a way of telling someone to shut up.
+5
Level 83
Jul 20, 2016
Isn't that "stick a sock in it"?
+1
Level 69
Apr 16, 2017
That's how people round my way use it - like fill your mouth with food to stop talking. Guess it's a geographical thing...
+1
Level 66
Jul 23, 2018
The full expression is more like "Stick a fork in it, it's done" to mean something is finished or dead. I believe you may be thinking of "put a sock in it," which is a reference to gagging someone to make them shut up.
+1
Level 48
Oct 6, 2018
not something i have ever heard, and that's with a mix of Pom and Brit experience
+2
Level 75
Aug 18, 2021
I literally just spent a full minute wondering why having porn experience might be relevant to you knowing the phrase "stick a fork in it". I think I need new glasses.
+1
Level 75
Oct 26, 2016
I read Regency romances sometimes and I frequently see the expression, "Stuck his spoon in the wall," to mean death. No idea why it signifies death. Just wondering, is the expression still used in the UK?
+1
Level 44
May 26, 2017
The link at the top says bananas68 but it really leads you to finglehorn. What's up with that? Did he change his screen name?
+5
Level 84
Jun 28, 2017
They entered the Witness Protection Program. You just blew their cover.
+1
Level 30
Aug 7, 2017
For some reason, I always thought it was "stick a cork in it", like putting an end to life or something.
+1
Level 66
Jul 23, 2018
Pretty sure the "stick a fork in it" is a reference to sticking a cooking fork into a roast to confirm that it's fully cooked.
+1
Level 29
May 10, 2018
I think this quiz would be better suited to a title and description switch out all the uses of cliche to euphemism or a form of it. While these are considered cliche in a way, I just think a better word for them is euphemisms.
+1
Level 66
Jul 23, 2018
I kept thinking "stick a Schnitzel in it"
+3
Level 75
May 15, 2019
I had only heard dead as a doornail
+1
Level 18
Aug 5, 2021
Love that you included t*ts as well as belly as that would def be a Britishism!!
+1
Level 67
Aug 18, 2021
Luca Brasi sleeps with the fishes
+1
Level 71
May 10, 2022
Perhaps this is embarrassing for me, but I've never realized that "bought the farm" is about death. I took it quite literally and thought it was about buying something big and expensive :P
+2
Level 64
Aug 6, 2022
Another nail in the coffin means that something or someone is a step closer to failure. It has nothing to do with death.
+3
Level 77
Aug 6, 2022
The Monty Python parrot sketch would be a fruitful source of suggestions for this quiz, e.g. shuffled off this mortal coil, run down the curtain and joined the choir invisible
+1
Level 48
Dec 29, 2022
I was thnking, "One foot on the banana peel, the other in the air"
+1
Level 18
May 30, 2023
How did I get most of the more difficult ones but not R.I.P.