Kick the Bucket

DISCLAIMER ---> To give credit where credit is due, check the bottom of my post for all the websites I got information off of. :)

Ok. Kick the Bucket. I'm assuming you've all heard this phrase used before. "What happened to Fred?" "Well, yesterday he just kicked the bucket." That's generally how that phrase is used. It basically means they died. 

But, how does kicking a bucket signify death? I mean, seriously. What do you think about when you hear, "kick the bucket?" I think of someone who is mad just up and walking up to a bucket and giving it a swift kick. Like you would a tire if you were near a vehicle or something. That doesn't really make sense unless you're talking about the bucket dying. Which, you obviously aren't. So, that eliminates that option. 

Here's some options that I think makes the most sense that I found while surfing on Bing:

"One theory as to why, albeit with little evidence to support it, is that the phrase originates from the notion that people hanged themselves by standing on a bucket with a noose around their neck and then kicking the bucket away. There are no citations that relate the phrase to suicide and, in any case, why a bucket? Whenever I've needed something to stand on I can't recall ever opting for a bucket. This theory doesn't stand up any better than the supposed buckets did.

The mist begins to clear with the fact that in 16th century England bucket had an additional meaning (and in some parts it still has), i.e. a beam or yoke used to hang or carry items. The term may have been introduced into English from the French trébuchet - meaning a balance, or buque - meaning a yoke. That meaning of bucket was referred to in Peter Levins' Manipulus vocabulorum. A dictionarie of English and Latine wordes, 1570:

"A Bucket, beame, tollo."

and was used by Shakespeare in Henry IV Part II, 1597:

"Swifter then he that gibbets on the Brewers Bucket." [to gibbet meant to hang]

The wooden frame that was used to hang animals up by their feet for slaughter was called a bucket. Not unnaturally they were likely to struggle or to spasm after death and hence 'kick the bucket'."

So, I leave you with those opinions to think on. :) 

http://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/218800.html