subs. phr. (common).—The next life: TO GO TO KINGDOM COME = to die. Fr. la paradouze or part-à-douze (a play on paradis); la parabole. It. soprano = higher; Sp. claro = light.
1785. GROSE, A Classical Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue, s.v.
1794. WOLCOT (‘Peter Pindar’), Brother Peter to Brother Tom, in Wks., i. p. 422.
| Did Gentlemen of fortune die, | |
| And leave the Church a good round sum; | |
| Lo! in the twinkling of an eye, | |
| The parson frank’d their souls to KINGDOM-COME! |
1836. MARRYAT, Mr. Midshipman Easy, xxix. 209. ‘They will not have much mercy from the waves, replied Gascoigne; they will all be in KINGDOM COME to-morrow morning, if the breeze comes more on land.’
1863. CAROLINE NORTON, Lost and Saved, p. 334. Treherne loq. ‘Well, my child, I don’t mean a great dangerous storm that’s to wreck the yacht and send us all to KINGDOM COME—but a nasty tossing sea, bad for women you know; men don’t mind it.’
