Casser sa pipe

Literally: To break one's pipe

Example: “Le vieux voisin a cassé sa pipe l'hiver dernier, à quatre-vingt-quinze ans.” — The old neighbor kicked the bucket last winter, at ninety-five.

English equivalent: Kick the bucket

Origin: Its origin is not known. The phrase is first found in the Mazarinades, the pamphlets written against Cardinal Mazarin during the Fronde, in 1649, where it meant to burst with rage; it has meant to die since the end of the 17th century. Two popular stories try to explain it, and both are later inventions, as Expressio points out: Napoleonic army surgeons giving a clay pipe to bite on to soldiers they operated on without anesthesia, who dropped and broke it if they died; and an actor playing Jean Bart, always pipe in mouth, who collapsed dead on stage as his pipe smashed.