bite the big one

present singular third person bites the big one · participle present biting the big one · past bit the big one · participle past bitten the big one

1. slangTo die.

   "I thought all of dad's relatives bit the big one a long time ago."

   1983, Susan Arnout, The Frozen Lady, page 397

   1 more example

   Fly, be free! Well, I guess we'll have to have a quick burial at sea then. I'll notify your next of kin. Your brother bit the big one.

   1978 September 14, Dale McRaven, Mork & Mindy, season 1, episode 2, spoken by Mork (Robin Williams)

   Synonyms: bite the dust, buy the farm, buy the big one, kick the bucket, assume room temperature, auger in, be called home, be gathered to one's fathers

2. slangTo break down; to be impossible to repair or not worth repairing.

   Whatever air-conditioning system the car had once possessed had bitten the big one years ago; ...

   1988, Barbara Hambly, The silicon mage, page 5

3. idiomaticTo perform poorly; to fail.

   Empire of the Sun was an enormous literary and commercial success in Britain but pretty much bit the Big One on its own in the United States.

   1990, Norman Spinrad, Science fiction in the real world, page 183

4. slangTo be unpleasant or undesirable.

   To Verdi, it bit the big one, but that was the way it worked.

   1996, Stephen Kimball, Death duty, page 9

5. slangTo perform fellatio.