mortal coil

Each Play button uses your device's default local English voice, or a natural local fallback. The selected voice name appears after playback. This is synthesized speech, not a source recording.

No pronunciation record was provided for this word.

Alluding to Hamlet. The two senses result from two interpretations of the word coil, one taking it to mean “tumult, confusion, fuss”, the other “case, wrapping”. In either case, the phrase “shuffle off this mortal coil” must mean “die”. Since "shuffle off" is generally taken to mean "get rid of" or "evade" it is likely that in the sense that Shakespeare used it, it was specifically referring to the act of suicide.