retirement

apply for Chiltern Hundreds To resign from office; to abandon one’s position or responsibility. This British expression alludes to the method used by an M.P. who wishes to resign before his term of office has expired, a forbidden practice. Also forbidden is the holding of paid office under the Crown while a member of Parliament. Consequently, the M.P. who wishes to resign applies for the Stewardship of the Chiltern Hundreds, a no longer extant Crown appointment. On receiving the appointment, he is forced to relinquish his seat in Parliament. Having done so, he at once resigns his Stewardship as well, thus leaving the fictitious post vacant for the next M.P. in need of the ploy.

hang up one’s hatchet To quit working, to take a rest or break from one’s work. The allusion is probably to a wood cutter or other person who uses a hatchet or ax in his trade and literally hangs it up when he stops working. This expression, no longer in use, dates as far back as 1327.

put out to pasture Retired, put on the shelf, put away. The expression originally referred to animals, such as workhorses, which, due to old age or poor health, had outlived their usefulness to their owners and were turned out to pasture for the rest of their days. Today the phrase is more commonly applied to older persons who, for the same reasons, have supposedly outlived their usefulness to society and are no longer allowed to play an active role in the affairs of the working world. The implication is that they are not accorded the dignity of human beings but are treated as animals whose only worth is in their work.

swallow the anchor To end one’s seafaring days by obtaining an onshore job or retiring from a maritime occupation; to be released from service with the Navy. This expression, of obvious nautical derivation, was used by A. E. Marten, as cited in Webster’s Third:

The expression is occasionally extended to apply to retirement from any occupation.