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Jun 23, 2020 · Summary. Mortal coil is one of many well-known poetic terms from Shakespeare’s Hamlet. It refers to the troubles and difficulties of human life—to the everyday chaos and mess that simply living can be. Indeed, when used idiomatically today, it means life’s everyday worries and cares.
- Maggie Cramer
Samuel Johnson's 1755 dictionary defines coil as: Tumult; turmoil; bustle; stir; hurry; confusion That meaning has been lost today. The phrase itself comes from Hamlet: "shuffle off this mortal coil", basically "shed these worldly troubles". Here is a nice article that goes deeper.
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Where does the phrase Mortal Coil come from?
Mar 23, 2020 · Mortal Coil Meaning. The phrase ‘mortal coil’ refers to the struggles and stresses that we face in our daily lives. Origin of this helpful idiom. The term ‘mortal coil’ first found its origins in the play called Hamlet by William Shakespeare where it was used in the term ‘to shuffle off this mortal coil.’.
Mortal coil is a poetic term that means the troubles of daily life and the strife and suffering of the world. It is used in the sense of a burden to be carried or abandoned, most famously in the phrase "shuffle[d] off this mortal coil" from the "To be, or not to be" monologue in Shakespeare's Hamlet.
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. Noun mortal coil (pl. mortal coils) The chaos and confusion of life.
From Hamlet’s ‘To be or not to be’ speech in Shakespeare’s Hamlet, 1602: “What dreames may come, When we haue shufflel’d off this mortall coile, Must giue vs pawse.”. In Shakespeare’s time ‘coil’, or coile’, or coyle’, meant ‘fuss’ or ‘bustle’. That usage was recorded in Michael Drayton’s Idea, the shepheards ...
mortal coil. From Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English mortal coil literary life or the state of being alive when Hubbard shuffled off this mortal coil (=died) → mortal Examples from the Corpus mortal coil • Times had certainly changed since he had shuffled off the old mortal coil. • Morse and Meldrew both shuffled off this mortal ...
