die in one's boots: translation
die in one's boots & die with one's boots on
Fig. to go down fighting; to die in some fashion other than in bed; to die fighting. (Popularized by western movies. Heroes and villains of these movies said they preferred death in a gunfight to showing cowardice or giving up.) •
I won't let him get me. I'll die in my boots.
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or[die with one's boots on] {v. phr.}, {informal} To be killed or hanged rather than die in bed. * /The badmen of the Old West usually died in their boots./ * /The robber said he wanted to die with his boots on./