student asking question

Does "shuffle off" mean someone's dead? and what does "mortal coil" mean?

teacher

Native speaker’s answer

Rebecca

The expression "shuffled off this mortal coil" is a reference from Hamlet, a play written by William Shakespeare. This is an allusion used to mean to die. "Mortal coils" refers to the daily troubles or burdens of life and to "shuffle off" means to end or finish. So to "shuffle off mortal coils" means to end the daily troubles, or in other words, to die. This expression is not common English and was just used as a reference to Shakespeare, who writes in Old English.

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