die in harness

verb

Of a person, to pass away before retirement.

Similar
die in office
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Meanings

verbdie in harness (third-person singular simple present dies in harness, present participle dying in harness, simple past and past participle died in harness)

present singular third person dies in harness · participle present dying in harness · participle past died in harness · past died in harness

  1. idiomaticinformalOf a person, to pass away before retirement.

    As he himself [Sir Nigel Gresley] would doubtless have wished, he died in harness; only a few weeks previously he had been present at the first public view of his latest design, the Bantam Cock, which, like most of his products, bore all over it the impress of his personality.

    1941 June, Cecil J. Allen, “British Locomotive Practive and Performance”, in Railway Magazine, page 260

    Synonyms: die in office

Synonyms & antonyms

verbOf a person, to pass away before retirement.

Similar
die in office

Origin

Refers metaphorically to working horses dying while on the job, wearing their harness.

Full word history & related roots →
Cite this entry
APA

die in harness. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 5, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/die%20in%20harness

MLA

“die in harness.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/die%20in%20harness. Accessed November 5, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “die in harness,” accessed November 5, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/die%20in%20harness.

Source: die in harness on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.