The mob boss warned that the traitor would sleep with the fishes.
sleep with the fishes
idiomTo be dead, with one's corpse disposed of in a body of water.
Origin
first recorded 19th c.The idea of sleeping with fishes first appears in Homer's Iliad (21), in which Achilles threatens (and kills) Lycaon (son of Priam), who will 'sleep with the fishes', in some translations. There was emphasis on the brutality of this method because it meant the body would remain forever unburied akin to an animal (fish). The earliest known exact phrase is from 1833, see the quotation below. The phrase was popularized in the motion picture The Godfather (1972). The 1969 book on which the movie was based includes a large, dead fish wrapped in a bulletproof vest being used to signify that a character is "sleeping on the bottom of the ocean", but not the phrase.
The detective knew that if the witness did not leave town immediately, he would soon be sleeping with the fishes.
The criminal organization made it clear that anyone who dared to testify against them would inevitably find themselves sleeping with the fishes.
- 01
beauty sleep
Originally, sleep taken before midnight, on the belief that early sleep hours conduce to beauty and health; now (chiefly humorous), sleep at any time needed by one to stay beautiful; (countable) an instance of such sleep.
- 02
big fish
An important person.
- 03
big fish in a small pond
One who has achieved a high rank or is highly esteemed, but only in a small, relatively unimportant, or little known location or organization.
- 04
big sleep
Death.
- 05
bigger fish to fry
A much more pressing issue to attend to.
- 06
cold fish
A heartless individual; a person lacking empathy and emotion.
- 07
cry oneself to sleep
To cry until or to fall asleep.
- 08
eat, breathe, and sleep
To devote one's time obsessively to.
Last updated April 17, 2026