to buy the farm
- idiom
- /baɪ ðə fɑrm/
- Slang
- He bought the farm, sir, but he took a lot of them with him.
- almost bought the farm
- thought I bought the farm
Examples
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I almost bought the farm.
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He bought the farm.
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I finally bought the farm.
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So Kelly bought the farm, huh?
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I looked down, and I just knew I was going to buy the farm.
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Now it was time to buy the farm, for me to meet my maker.
Fiction book (2000) -
Looks like your boy Denslow is about to buy the farm.
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Damn, I thought we'd bought the farm there for a while.
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She bought the farm.
Fiction book (1992) -
During the battle, many soldiers were injured and a few even bought the farm.
Synonyms
To stop living and no longer be alive
To stop working or start to fail
To stop living
To die suddenly or violently, often in large numbers
To stop living, used in formal or old language
To die suddenly from an accident or attack
Die suddenly, often from shock or extreme tiredness
To die, said in a casual or joking way
To die, often used in medical or formal speech
To die
To die peacefully in a gentle, respectful way
To die, said in casual or joking speech
To suddenly faint or fall unconscious
To die or stop working after a long time of problems
To stop living and not come back
To die, often said as a joke to make it seem less serious
Die because of an accident, violence, or disaster
To die in a light, not serious way
Antonyms
Surface Forms
Morphology
buy + the + farm
The meaning 'to die' has no transparent or predictable connection to the literal constituents 'buy' + 'the' + 'farm'; purchasing a farm does not compositionally imply death. This is a colloquial/military idiom with historical origins and therefore a B1 learner who knows the individual words would not be able to infer the idiomatic meaning.
Etymology
The idiom buy the farm may come from stories about planes crashing into a farm. If a crash killed the pilot, the company or government would pay or 'buy' the land, so people began using buy the farm to mean 'to die', often in a sudden accident.