or pass in one’s checks, verbal phr. (American).—To die. Derived from the game of poker, where counters or CHECKS, purchased at certain fixed rates, are equivalent to coin. The euphemism is drawn from the analogy between settling one’s earthly accounts, and paying in dues at the end of the game.
1871. JOHN HAY, ‘Jim Bludso of the Prairie Belle,’ in Pike County Ballads.
| Whar have you been for the last three year | |
| That you have n’t heard folks tell | |
| How Jimmy Bludso PASSED IN HIS CHECKS | |
| The night of the Prairie Belle? |
1870. BRET HARTE, The Outcasts Poker Flat. Beneath this tree lies the body of J. O. who … HANDED IN HIS CHECKS on the 7th December, 1850.
1872. S. L. CLEMENS (‘Mark Twain’), Roughing It, p. 332. ‘You see,’ said the miner, ‘one of the boys has PASSED IN HIS CHECKS, and we want to give him a good send off.’
1882. R. I. DODGE, Plains of the Great West. As close a shave as I ever made to PASSING IN MY CHECKS was from a buffalo stampede.
1888. New York Sun. Well, I owned the mule for several years after that, and when he finally PASSED IN HIS CHECKS I gave him as decent a burial as any pioneer ever got.
