"die in harness" meaning in English

See die in harness in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Verb

Forms: dies in harness [present, singular, third-person], dying in harness [participle, present], died in harness [participle, past], died in harness [past]
Etymology: By metaphor from the literal sense referring to working horses dying while on the job, wearing their harness. Head templates: {{en-verb|*|head=die in harness}} die in harness (third-person singular simple present dies in harness, present participle dying in harness, simple past and past participle died in harness)
  1. (informal, idiomatic) Of a person, to pass away before retirement. Tags: idiomatic, informal
    Sense id: en-die_in_harness-en-verb-PKSDH8ER Categories (other): English entries with incorrect language header, Pages with 1 entry, Pages with entries, Death

Inflected forms

{
  "etymology_text": "By metaphor from the literal sense referring to working horses dying while on the job, wearing their harness.",
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "dies in harness",
      "tags": [
        "present",
        "singular",
        "third-person"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "dying in harness",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "present"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "died in harness",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "past"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "died in harness",
      "tags": [
        "past"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "*",
        "head": "die in harness"
      },
      "expansion": "die in harness (third-person singular simple present dies in harness, present participle dying in harness, simple past and past participle died in harness)",
      "name": "en-verb"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "verb",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Pages with 1 entry",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Pages with entries",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "langcode": "en",
          "name": "Death",
          "orig": "en:Death",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        }
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "bold_text_offsets": [
            [
              66,
              81
            ]
          ],
          "ref": "1941 June, Cecil J. Allen, “British Locomotive Practive and Performance”, in Railway Magazine, page 260:",
          "text": "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.",
          "type": "quote"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "Of a person, to pass away before retirement."
      ],
      "id": "en-die_in_harness-en-verb-PKSDH8ER",
      "links": [
        [
          "person",
          "person"
        ],
        [
          "pass away",
          "pass away"
        ],
        [
          "retirement",
          "retirement"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(informal, idiomatic) Of a person, to pass away before retirement."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "idiomatic",
        "informal"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "die in harness"
}
{
  "etymology_text": "By metaphor from the literal sense referring to working horses dying while on the job, wearing their harness.",
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "dies in harness",
      "tags": [
        "present",
        "singular",
        "third-person"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "dying in harness",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "present"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "died in harness",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "past"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "died in harness",
      "tags": [
        "past"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "*",
        "head": "die in harness"
      },
      "expansion": "die in harness (third-person singular simple present dies in harness, present participle dying in harness, simple past and past participle died in harness)",
      "name": "en-verb"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "verb",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        "English entries with incorrect language header",
        "English idioms",
        "English informal terms",
        "English lemmas",
        "English multiword terms",
        "English terms with quotations",
        "English verbs",
        "Pages with 1 entry",
        "Pages with entries",
        "en:Death"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "bold_text_offsets": [
            [
              66,
              81
            ]
          ],
          "ref": "1941 June, Cecil J. Allen, “British Locomotive Practive and Performance”, in Railway Magazine, page 260:",
          "text": "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.",
          "type": "quote"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "Of a person, to pass away before retirement."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "person",
          "person"
        ],
        [
          "pass away",
          "pass away"
        ],
        [
          "retirement",
          "retirement"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(informal, idiomatic) Of a person, to pass away before retirement."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "idiomatic",
        "informal"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "die in harness"
}

Download raw JSONL data for die in harness meaning in English (1.7kB)


This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2025-12-06 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2025-12-02 using wiktextract (ddb1505 and 9905b1f). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.

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