DCHP-2

biscuit informal DCHP-2 (October 2016)

• expression — expression, slang, originally Military

  had the biscuit: to no longer be good for anything, to be finished, to be useless.

  Type: 5. Frequency — The phrase "had the biscuit" is presently almost exclusively found in Canada (see Chart 1). It might also be of Canadian origin, given the limitation to the .ca domain. Although the earliest quotation found here is from The New York Times, the quotation in question is in an article about Toronto and cites a Canadian tourism official as using the phrase (see the 1964 quotation). "Had the biscuit" has several nuanced meanings, including to be over (see e.g. the 1964 quotation), to be finished with (see e.g. the 2012 quotation), to be useless (see e.g. the 2005 quotation), and others.
  See also COD-2, s.v. "biscuit" (5), which is marked "Cdn".

  • Speculation links the origin of the phrase to World War I trench warfare, in a number of different scenarios. The most plausible of the WWI rationales is that wounded soldier would be laid on mattresses, called biscuits in military slang (see OED-3, s.v. biscuit (1)(b)(b), 'Mil. slang. A square brown palliasse or mattress'. If the soldier died, he had the biscuit. This origin is conjecture, given the lack of supporting quotations before the 1960s. If this origin can be confirmed, the term would be a Canadian preservation (Type 2 Canadianism).