Anyways, biting the dust is a useful phrase to learn. This expression, according to the Phrase Finder at Phrases.org.uk, goes all the way back to the Christian Bible, although in a different form. The Phrase Finder explains:
The same notion is expressed in the earlier phrase ‘lick the dust’, from the Bible, where there are several uses of it, including Psalms 72 (King James Version), 1611:
“They that dwell in the wilderness shall bow before him and his enemies shall lick the dust.”
“Lick the dust” sounds too learned and literary, I suppose. That’s why it is no longer widely in use – except perhaps among literary circles. “Bite the dust”, on the other hand, is the replacement phrase that has survived among the masses to this day.
Today, the phrase remains alive and well. In other words, “bite the dust” is in rude health and shows no signs of going to the grave any time soon.
All right, here are recent media examples to illustrate the point:
1. Last April, another flagship Alberta CCS plan bit the dust when TransAlta Corp. cancelled the Pioneer project that was to have captured the carbon from the Keephills 3 coal-fired power plant. Despite government funding, TransAlta and its partners decided they could not justify the expense.
That leaves two substantial government-backed CCS projects under way in the province. One is Royal Dutch Shell PLC’s Quest project that will capture and store CO2 from an oil sands upgrader near Fort Saskatchewan. The other is the Alberta Carbon Trunk Line, a 240-kilometre pipeline that is to carry CO2 from a fertilizer plant and oil sands refinery to central Alberta, where it will be used to squeeze more oil out of existing oil wells. It is a joint venture of Enhance Energy Inc., North West Upgrading Inc. and Agrium Inc.
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