One foot in the grave

The phrase ‘one foot in the grave’ has been current in English since the 17th century. It is rather an antiquated expression but took an upswing in use, in the UK at least, following the success of the BBC sitcom One Foot In The Grave, which was popular throughout the 1990s and starred Richard Wilson as grumpy old man Victor Meldrew.

It is fairly easy to derive the meaning of the phrase as ‘close to death’.

The first example of the expression in print is found in Philip Massinger’s and Nathan Field’s play The Fatall Dowry: A Tragedy, 1632:

When one foot’s in the graue.

17th century listeners would have had a different understanding of this than we do now. ‘Foot’ was then used as a verb meaning ‘trip’ or ‘catch’. To ‘catch by the foot’ was to hold someone, as if in a trap. A figurative expression like ‘one foot in the grave’ would have then been understood to mean ‘trapped by death’ with no possibility of escape.

Other ‘One‘ phrases:

One-hit wonder
One fell swoop – At
One for the road
One over the eight
One sandwich short of a picnic
One small step for man
One stop shop
One swallow doesn’t make a summer