I know English has “kick the bucket”, and “bite the dust” which are very common, but are there any such euphemisms in your language. In my language, there are a few, that loosely translate to: “they closed eyes”, “rose to sky”, “they crossed”, etc.
P.S.: Although I must say, they are used in different scenarios. For family, people typically use “they crossed”, for artists or cultural figures, people use “rose to the sky”, and for popular people we use “they closed eyes”.
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“bought the farm” is one that started as a reference to fatal plan crashes. In Scotland “cop yer whack” is another, made famous by Billy Connolly.
“passer l’arme à gauche” litteraly “putting your gun on the left”.
“Manger les pissenlits par la racine” : “eating the dandelions by the roots”
There are some:
– Kick the bucket exists in Cypriot Greek too(not in modern Greek) [Eklotsise tin sikla]
– His tail was straightened (not sure how to translate it, the opposite of going limp) again in Cypriot Greek only
My favorite is “to smell the flowers from underneath”. Others include “kick the calendar” , “go to dust”, “move to Abraham’s lap” , “go to Abraham for a beer”, “stretch your hooves”, “move to the world beyond”, “leave this world”, “part ways with life”, “give the last breath”, “cork out”, “release your spirit”, “fall into eternal sleep”, “be done with your life” and a few untranslatable ones.
In German, you can say ‘bit the grass”, “left us”, “left the stage”, “went away from us”, “to attend your last ride”, “met the maker”, “hit the last hour”, “blessed by the time” which isn’t all that unusual or surprising.
There are some curious ones though: “to give up the spoon” or “to get in the eternal hunting grounds”
Ins Gras beißen (biting into grass), den Löffel abgeben (giving away your spoon)
To turn the corner
To give the priest the ort (an old term for a coin)
De pijp aan Maarten geven (giving Maarten the pipe)
De viooltjes van de andere kant bekijken (checking out the violas from another angle)
[Ukrainian] modern slang in my home town: “to quack” (as a duck).
In Slovenian: “Šel je rakom žvižgat” – he went whistling to the crabs.
Some more English ones:
Belly up
Brown bread
Gone west
Pushing up daisies
Popped their clogs
For Romanian it is “s-a stins” meaning “he was put out”, like putting out a candle. It’s also a verb used for turning off a tv or lightbulb.
Here are some Finnish ones & their translations
Heittää henkensä – to throw away one’s spirit
Heittää lusikkansa nurkkaan – to throw one’s spoon in the corner
Joutua matojen ruoaksi – to end up as worm’s food
Kuolema raapii persettä – death scratches the arse (as in death coming soon)
Oikaista koipensa – to straighten one’s legs
Potkaista tyhjää – to kick the emptiness
Päästää kylmä pieru – to let out a cold fart
Saada koiran kuolema – to get a dog’s death (as in an awful death)
Siirtyä enkelikuoroon – to transfer into an angel choir
Vetää vitoset – to pull the fives
Some general Spanish ones I can recall:
– Ir a criar malvas (Go to raise mallows)
– Estirar la pata (to stretch the leg/paw)
– Irse al otro barrio (Go to the other neighborhood)
– Caerse redondo (to fall round)
Some from Valencia:
– Donar de menjar als cucs (to feed the worms)
– Cantar el gorigori (to sing the gorigori)
– Gelar-se com un pardalet (to freeze like a little bird)
Some more german ones:
Über der Jordan gehen – to cross the river Jordan. Sometimes, other rivers are used, often the river Wupper (mostly because it sounds funnier).
Sich die Radieschen von unten ansehen – to look at the radishes from below.
Einschlafen – to fall asleep. This is something you’d find in an obituary or similar, along the lines of “our beloved grandmother peacefully fell asleep”
Entschlafen – another one with the word “schlafen” (“to sleep”) as its root. However, the prefix “ent-” implies leaving. I don’t think this is directly translatable into English.
Death itself is “der Schnitter” and “der Sensenmann” (“the Reaper”) or Freund Hein (“friend Hein”), all three names for the classic anthropomorphic depiction of Death as a skeleton with a scythe.
Estar criando malvas – to be growing mallows
Estirar la pata – to strecht the paw
Irse al otro barrio – to go to the other neighborhood
Pasar a mejor vida – to move on to a better life
Tapped his slippers.
Was carried legs first.
My favourite English one is hopped a twig.
They left us, they are not longer with us, they left for a grassy place / a resting place.
Passare a miglior vita. – lit. To pass to better life.
Tirare le cuoia. – To pull… ah! I don’t know how to translate this. Cuoio is leather in Italian. So the literal translation might be “to pull the leather”. I made a quick google research and it says that it might be a reference that our body (and skin) does while dying.
We also use “volare in cielo” with children. It means “flying to the sky”.