the last roundup

the last roundup

old-fashioned One's death. Primarily heard in US. When my grandmother was in her '80s, she always joked about heading to the last roundup. I think in some ways the fact that she treated it so light-heartedly made it easier to bear when she did finally pass away.
See also: last, roundup
Farlex Dictionary of Idioms.

the last roundup

death. informal euphemistic
The metaphor was based on the idea of a final rounding-up of cattle in the American Wild West. The phrase itself seems to have originated as the title of a 1932 song by G. Brown .
See also: last, roundup
Farlex Partner Idioms Dictionary
See also:
  • (Well,) I'll be durned!
  • a bad quarter of an hour
  • a pile Jack Rice couldn't jump over
  • a roll Jack Rice couldn't jump over
  • What say (one)?
  • What say you?
  • What say?
  • (for) land('s) sake(s) (alive)
  • a bit of crackling
  • a whole team and the dog under the wagon
References in periodicals archive
The last roundup: Skyrocketing property appraisals threaten dissolvency for local landowners, Killeen Daily Herald
The Brief: It's the last day of the 85th Texas legislative session. Ready for a special session?
He said: "This really is the last roundup. We have assurances from several South American countries they are willing to deal with the killers living among them.
The last Nazis; CRUSADE TO FINALLY BRING HITLER'S EIGHT AGEING HENCHMEN TO JUSTICE
503, which bans the slaughter of horses for human consumption (see "The Last Roundup," cover story, May/June 2006).
New hope for horses
So this was it, the final flourish, the last roundup for Celtic's King of Kings, and it didn't matter that Seville had come as opposition on a night that, in the beginning and again at the end, was like Last Night at the Proms, Christmas, and Hogmanay all rolled in to one.
FOOTBALL: BREAKING UP IS H HARD TO DO; Celtic 1 Seville 0 Agony for Celts fans as Henrik says a sad farewell to Paradise
This summer may be the last roundup for Rock'n Rodeo, the rowdy Eugene bar that has a chronic problem with drunken, belligerent and violent customers.
Rock'n Rodeo's license in jeopardy
A hit recording of "The Last Roundup" in 1935 caught the attention of a talent scout and by then he was in California working on KFWB for Jack & His Texas Outlaws.
Roy Rogers
Gunfighter Nation ends with a chapter on "The Crisis of Public Myth," the last roundup: the imaginary West used up, its dispossessed audience in need of new ways to conceptualize the past.
Gunfighter Nation: The Myth of the Frontier in Twentieth-Century America