To drive a nail into one's coffin. To shorten life by anxiety,
drink, etc. Topers call a dram “a nail in their coffin,” in jocular
allusion to the teetotal axiom.
Care to our coffin adds a nail, no doubt;
But every grin so merry draws one out.
Peter Pindar (John Wolcot): Expostulatory Odes, Ode
xv.
Source: Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, E. Cobham Brewer, 1894
