pass the river

Allusion to the crossing of the river Styx, the boundary between life and Hades, in Classical Greek mythology.

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pass the river (third-person singular simple present passes the river, present participle passing the river, simple past and past participle passed the river)

1. (idiomatic, euphemistic) To die.
   • 1991, Anthony Hope, edited by Humphrey Carpenter and Mari Prichard, The Oxford Companion to Children's Literature, Oxford: Oxford University Press, pages 216–219:

     To the beautiful memory of Kenneth Grahame, husband of Elspeth and father of Alastair, who passed the river on the 6th of July, 1932, leaving childhood and literature through him the more blest for all time.

• See Thesaurus:die