mortal coil
nounEtymology
Alluding to Hamlet. The two senses result from two interpretations of the word coil, one taking it to mean “tumult, confusion, fuss”, the other “case, wrapping”. In either case, the phrase “shuffle off this mortal coil” must mean “die”. Since "shuffle off" is generally taken to mean "get rid of" or "evade" it is likely that in the sense that Shakespeare used it, it was specifically referring to the act of suicide.
Definitions
The chaos and confusion of life.
The physical body of a man (containing the spirit inside).
- His soul may have found rest, but “his mortal coil” certainly did not. Unfortunately […] the village “astrologer” informed them that […] they must dig him up, give the customary feast in his honor and have another burial site chosen.
The neighborhood
Vish — recursive loop
No curated loop yet for mortal coil. Loops are being traced one word at a time while the ingestion pipeline matures.
sense glosses and etymology drawn from English Wiktionary · source · CC-BY-SA