debt to nature

debt to nature

euphemism Death. When I'm ready to pay my debt to nature, I hope I'm surrounded by my family.
See also: debt, nature
Farlex Dictionary of Idioms.
See also:
  • (something) or no (something)
  • something or no something
  • up to (one's) ears in debt
  • up to your ears in debt
  • head over heels in debt
  • in debt
  • out of debt
  • pay (one's) debt
  • pay debt
  • go into hock
References in periodicals archive
Much attention is paid to our economic deficit, but whilst that diverts our attention, the debt to nature is building up, and that deficit will soon be unpayable.
Reaping but not sowing
'Payback time' is the theme of her fifth and final chapter where she directs our attention to a discussion of our 'debt to nature'.
Payback: Debt and the Shadow Side of Wealth
St Cuthbert's Church in Edinburgh has a tombstone inscription that says it all: Death is debt to Nature due which I have paid and so must you.
ALISON TAYLOR MY SHOUT; VIEW POINT
Petrino presents the surprising--and convincing--observation that Dickinson's tendency to write from beyond the grave was not iconoclastic but rather was influenced by epitaphs found on tombstones, such as "Death is a debt to nature due / Which I have paid and so must you" (108).
Emily Dickinson and Her Contemporaries: Women's Verse in America, 1820-1885
Since she whome I lovd, hath payed her last debt To nature, and to hers, and my good is dead, And her soule early into heaven ravished, Wholy in heavenly things my mind is sett.
Donne's debt to Petrarch in his 'Sonnet 17.'