Dictionary

go the way of all flesh en · VERB

Pronunciation

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Etymology

Equivalent to Danish gå al kødets gang, German den Weg allen Fleisches gehen.

Meanings

1. (euphemistic) To die; to follow a course leading to death or extinction.
   • [T]hough the body be going the vvay of all fleſh, yet that ſoule is going the vvay of all Saints. 1624, John Donne, chapter XVII, in Deuotions upon Emergent Occasions, and Seuerall Steps in My Sicknes: […], London: […] A[ugustine] M[atthews] for Thomas Iones, →OCLC, page 434:
   • The first stranger handed his neighbor the family mug—a huge vessel of brown ware, having its upper edge worn away like a threshold by the rub of whole generations of thirsty lips that had gone the way of all flesh. 1879–1888, Thomas Hardy, “(please specify the page)”, in Wessex Tales: Strange, Lively, and Commonplace […], volume (please specify |volume=I or II), London; New York, N.Y.: Macmillan and Co., published 1888, →OCLC:
   • Laurence of Oxford went the way of all flesh on the gallows. 2006, Laura Wertheimer, “Clerical Dissent, Popular Piety, and Sanctity in 14th-Century Peterborough”, in Journal of British Studies, volume 45, number 1, page 3:
   • What could one do? Buy them and stick them in a lumber-room? No; they had to go the way of all flesh and furniture, and be worn out. 1921 September, John Galsworthy, chapter 11, in To Let, London: William Heinemann, →OCLC, page 310:
   • On the U.S. West Coast, the clubs and restaurants that feature topless female entertainers and waitresses also seemed to be going the way of all flesh. In Los Angeles, 20% of the joints have closed. 1967 August 18, “Tops & Bottoms”, in Time, New York, N.Y.: Time Inc., →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 15 Dec 2008:

Forms

Synonyms

pass away · pay the debt of nature