to sleep with the fishes
1
9.9
- idiom
- Offensive
:
dormir con los peces
- You get me out of here or else you sleep with the fishes.
What I'm saying is a large portion of Tony sleeps with the fishes now.
- What I'm saying is a large portion of Tony sleeps with the fishes now.
Examples
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And we better not see you two around here again or you're gonna sleep with the fishes.
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I'll end up sleeping with the fishes.
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Or else you'll be sleeping with the fishes.
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Snitches get stitches and sleep with the fishes.
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It means Luca Brasi sleeps with the fishes.
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If you betray us, you will sleep with the fishes.
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After he informed the police, he feared he would sleep with the fishes.
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The gangster warned his rival that anyone who crossed him would soon be sleeping with the fishes.
Synonyms
123
1.4
Make a person or animal die by holding them under water so they cannot breathe
57
9.9
To die suddenly from an accident or attack
Antonyms
Surface Forms
Morphology
The phrase is an idiomatic mafia euphemism meaning ‘be murdered and dumped in water,’ which cannot be reliably derived from the literal meanings of 'sleep' + 'with' + 'the' + 'fishes.' Although 'sleep' can euphemically signal death in some contexts, the specific notion of being killed and disposed of in water is cultural and non-compositional, so a B1 learner who only knows the parts would not predict this meaning.
Etymology
Sleep with the fishes comes from old gangster stories where killers would throw a dead body into the water so the person would literally sleep with the fishes. So it means 'to be killed and thrown into water' and is often used as a dark threat or joke.