Originally posted by apathistInteresting. I would never use this idiom to mean 'to die' but, instead, I would tend to use it/hear it in an extra-helping-of-irony way, to mean 'stop trying, surrender, throw in the towel, cease functioning' which is obviously related to the original 'to die' meaning, although I'd say I can't recall fellow Brits using it to mean 'to die' ~ although it might be that they don't seem to apply it to people but instead use it to describe machines or efforts or institutions 'dying'. Then again, my take on some idioms can be a bit trapped in aspic sometimes.
give up the ghost
Originally posted by apathistthat sounds like a direkt Translation of: den Geist aufgeben
give up the ghost
push the daisies: Die Radieschen von unten ansehen
give up the spoon- den Löffel abgeben (actually the bucket list is the Löffelliste in German)
den letzten Atemzug getan haben - to have breathed the last breath
