food for worms


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food for worms

A dead person. You better drive more carefully, unless you want to be food for worms!
See also: food, for, Worms
Farlex Dictionary of Idioms. © 2015 Farlex, Inc, all rights reserved.

food for worms

a dead person.
See also: food, for, Worms
Farlex Partner Idioms Dictionary © Farlex 2017

food for worms

Dead and buried. This expression dates back to the thirteenth century, or perhaps even earlier. “Ne schalt tu beon wurmes fode?” wrote the unknown author of the Middle English Ancren Riwle about 1220. Shakespeare picked it up in Henry IV, Part 1 (5.4), when the mortally wounded Hotspur says of himself, “No, Percy, thou art dust, and food for—” and dies, so Prince Henry completes it, “For worms, brave Percy.”
See also: food, for, Worms
The Dictionary of Clichés by Christine Ammer Copyright © 2013 by Christine Ammer
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