A common theory is that the idiom refers to hanging, either as a method of execution or suicide. However, there is no evidence to support this. Its earliest appearance is in the Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue (1785), where it is defined as 'to die'.[2] In John Badcock's slang dictionary of 1823, the explanation is given that "One Bolsover having hung himself from a beam while standing on a pail, or bucket, kicked this vessel away in order to pry into futurity and it was all UP with him from that moment: Finis".[3]