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The meaning and origin of the expression: Bite the dust


Bite the dust

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Fall to the ground, wounded or dead.


Given the many B-feature cowboy movies in which the bad guys, or occasionally the pesky redskins, would 'bite the dust', we might expect this to be of American origin. It isn't though. The same notion is expressed in the earlier phrase 'lick the dust', from the Bible, where there are several uses of it, including Psalms 72 (King James Version), 1611:

"They that dwell in the wilderness shall bow before him and his enemies shall lick the dust."

The earliest citation of the 'bite the dust' version is from 1750 by the Scottish author Tobias Smollett , in his Adventures of Gil Blas of Santillane:


Homer's epic poem The Iliad was written in around 700 BC. That was in Greek of course. It was translated into English in the 19th century by Samuel Butler and his version contains a reference to 'bite the dust' in these lines:

