catch the bus

Originated on the alt.suicide.holiday Usenet newsgroup in the 1990s.(This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium. Particularly: “How did it originate? What was the context and what does ‘the bus’ refer to?”)

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catch the bus (third-person singular simple present catches the bus, present participle catching the bus, simple past and past participle caught the bus)

1. Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see catch,‎ the,‎ bus.
2. (euphemistic, chiefly Internet) To kill oneself deliberately; to commit suicide.
   • 2000, (unknown), “catching the bus tonight..... I hope.....”, in alt.suicide.holiday (Usenet):

     I have the tools for catching the bus, just not the nerve. Soft suicide I can do. Take some pills, no problem. But never do I succeed that way.

   • 2004, everwestward, “Is suicide contagious? (was Re: Favorite Songs)”, in alt.suicide.holiday (Usenet):

     If anyone's curious, here's a song my band recorded (totally raw... it never made it out of the studio). A friend of mine caught the bus, and this was my way of saying "Peace."

   • 2010, Michael F. Clark, Life By Suicide, page 116:

     Anyway at the end of my day, I decided to give him a call because the worse^[sic] thing that would happen is that I would have to catch the bus.

   • 2011, Jake Vander Ark, Lighthouse Nights:

     this wasn't the first time he spoke of suicide--this was a suicide chat room after all […]
     00sexboy00: tonights^[sic] the night to catch the bus john! u been crying u pussy? ur slanty eyes are all red!
     john squeezed them shut and nodded.
     gabe wanted to reach a hand through the monitor to comfort his friend. but all he could do was type.