"sleep with the fishes" meaning in English

See sleep with the fishes in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Verb

Audio: En-au-sleep with the fishes.ogg Forms: sleeps with the fishes [present, singular, third-person], sleeping with the fishes [participle, present], slept with the fishes [participle, past], slept with the fishes [past]
Etymology: Earliest known record is from 1833, see the quotation below. The phrase was popularized in the motion picture The Godfather (1972). The 1969 book on which the movie was based includes a large, dead fish wrapped in a bulletproof vest being used to signify that a character is "sleeping on the bottom of the ocean", but not the phrase. Head templates: {{en-verb|sleep<,,slept> with the fishes}} sleep with the fishes (third-person singular simple present sleeps with the fishes, present participle sleeping with the fishes, simple past and past participle slept with the fishes)
  1. (idiomatic) To be dead, with one's corpse disposed of in a body of water. Wikipedia link: The Godfather Tags: idiomatic Categories (topical): Death
    Sense id: en-sleep_with_the_fishes-en-verb-FKt8A6mP Categories (other): English entries with incorrect language header, Pages with 1 entry, Pages with entries

Inflected forms

{
  "etymology_text": "Earliest known record is from 1833, see the quotation below. The phrase was popularized in the motion picture The Godfather (1972). The 1969 book on which the movie was based includes a large, dead fish wrapped in a bulletproof vest being used to signify that a character is \"sleeping on the bottom of the ocean\", but not the phrase.",
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "sleeps with the fishes",
      "tags": [
        "present",
        "singular",
        "third-person"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "sleeping with the fishes",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "present"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "slept with the fishes",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "past"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "slept with the fishes",
      "tags": [
        "past"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "sleep<,,slept> with the fishes"
      },
      "expansion": "sleep with the fishes (third-person singular simple present sleeps with the fishes, present participle sleeping with the fishes, simple past and past participle slept with the fishes)",
      "name": "en-verb"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "verb",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
          "parents": [
            "Entries with incorrect language header",
            "Entry maintenance"
          ],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Pages with 1 entry",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Pages with entries",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "topical",
          "langcode": "en",
          "name": "Death",
          "orig": "en:Death",
          "parents": [
            "Body",
            "Life",
            "All topics",
            "Nature",
            "Fundamental"
          ],
          "source": "w"
        }
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "1833 March, “The Three Humpbacks ; or, the Bridge of Bagdad”, in The Lady's Magazine and Museum, page 105:",
          "text": "The porter […] opened his sack, and pitched the corpse into the river, and ran back to receive the rest of his pay “ It is done,” said he, laughing ; “ Your man sleeps with the fishes of the Tigris by this time […]”",
          "type": "quote"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "To be dead, with one's corpse disposed of in a body of water."
      ],
      "id": "en-sleep_with_the_fishes-en-verb-FKt8A6mP",
      "links": [
        [
          "corpse",
          "corpse"
        ],
        [
          "dispose",
          "dispose"
        ],
        [
          "water",
          "water"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(idiomatic) To be dead, with one's corpse disposed of in a body of water."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "idiomatic"
      ],
      "wikipedia": [
        "The Godfather"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
    {
      "audio": "En-au-sleep with the fishes.ogg",
      "mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/9/92/En-au-sleep_with_the_fishes.ogg/En-au-sleep_with_the_fishes.ogg.mp3",
      "ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/92/En-au-sleep_with_the_fishes.ogg"
    }
  ],
  "word": "sleep with the fishes"
}
{
  "etymology_text": "Earliest known record is from 1833, see the quotation below. The phrase was popularized in the motion picture The Godfather (1972). The 1969 book on which the movie was based includes a large, dead fish wrapped in a bulletproof vest being used to signify that a character is \"sleeping on the bottom of the ocean\", but not the phrase.",
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "sleeps with the fishes",
      "tags": [
        "present",
        "singular",
        "third-person"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "sleeping with the fishes",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "present"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "slept with the fishes",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "past"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "slept with the fishes",
      "tags": [
        "past"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "sleep<,,slept> with the fishes"
      },
      "expansion": "sleep with the fishes (third-person singular simple present sleeps with the fishes, present participle sleeping with the fishes, simple past and past participle slept with the fishes)",
      "name": "en-verb"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "verb",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        "English entries with incorrect language header",
        "English idioms",
        "English lemmas",
        "English multiword terms",
        "English terms with quotations",
        "English verbs",
        "Pages with 1 entry",
        "Pages with entries",
        "en:Death"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "1833 March, “The Three Humpbacks ; or, the Bridge of Bagdad”, in The Lady's Magazine and Museum, page 105:",
          "text": "The porter […] opened his sack, and pitched the corpse into the river, and ran back to receive the rest of his pay “ It is done,” said he, laughing ; “ Your man sleeps with the fishes of the Tigris by this time […]”",
          "type": "quote"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "To be dead, with one's corpse disposed of in a body of water."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "corpse",
          "corpse"
        ],
        [
          "dispose",
          "dispose"
        ],
        [
          "water",
          "water"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(idiomatic) To be dead, with one's corpse disposed of in a body of water."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "idiomatic"
      ],
      "wikipedia": [
        "The Godfather"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
    {
      "audio": "En-au-sleep with the fishes.ogg",
      "mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/9/92/En-au-sleep_with_the_fishes.ogg/En-au-sleep_with_the_fishes.ogg.mp3",
      "ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/92/En-au-sleep_with_the_fishes.ogg"
    }
  ],
  "word": "sleep with the fishes"
}

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This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2024-11-06 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2024-10-02 using wiktextract (fbeafe8 and 7f03c9b). 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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