buy the farm

Sl. to die; to get killed. (The farm is a burial plot.) I'll pass through this illness; I'm too young to buy the farm. He lived for a few hours after his collapse, but then he bought it.

see under buy it.

To die, especially suddenly or violently.

Die. This phrase comes from the military: members of the armed forces were issued insurance policies. Many servicemen speculated that when they returned to civilian life, they would buy a farm back home or pay off the mortgage on one that they or their parents owned. To die was literally to retire, and so combat victims were said to have “bought the farm.” Other phrases that mean “to die” are “cash in your chips” (as if checking out of a poker game), “fall off the perch” (an expiring caged bird), and “go South” (someone now living up North returning to his or her native soil).