Bite the dust

Although frequently heard in Western movies, the expression is not of American origin. Sometimes found in the form of “kiss the dust” or “lick the dust”, it has two meanings. Firstly, to fall or die and therefore literally “bite the dust”, secondly, it also means to be humiliated or ruined. The most likely origin is biblical: Psalms 72:9. “They that dwell in the wilderness shall bow before him and his enemies will lick the dust.” The earliest verbatim form of “bite the dust” appears in Tobias Smollett The Adventures of Gil Blas of Santillane, 1750. “We made two of them bite the dust, and the others betake themselves to flight.” Another One Bites the Dust was, of course, a song made famous by Queen in the 1980s.