bite the big one

English

Pronunciation

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Verb

bite the big one (third-person singular simple present bites the big one, present participle biting the big one, simple past bit the big one, past participle bitten the big one)

1. (slang) To die.
   • 1983, Susan Arnout, The Frozen Lady, page 397:

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

2. (slang) To break down; to be impossible to repair or not worth repairing.
   • 1988, Barbara Hambly, The silicon mage, page 5:

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

3. (idiomatic) To perform poorly; to fail.
   • 1990, Norman Spinrad, Science fiction in the real world, page 183:

     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.

4. (slang) To be unpleasant or undesirable.
   • 1996, Stephen Kimball, Death duty, page 9:

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

Synonyms

• (die): bite the dust, buy the farm, kick the bucket, see Thesaurus:die