45, midwest / northeast US. Never heard it used for shot, kaput, toast, or as we say here in Indiana, geshphincto.
I grew up in Saskatchewan and I’m familiar with “had the biscuit”/“had the bun”. I don’t think I’ve used that phrase in years, though.
24, mid-Atlantic US. I’ve never heard the expression, but I’m pretty sure I’d understand it in context. I would, however, have assumed it was a Britishism and been surprised to learn it was Canadian.
I think I would probably say the object had “bit the dust” or “bought it.”
I would probably just say, “(This has) had it,” which I guess I got from my Grandma. Central US, Midwest roots. Apparently my Ohio-valley ancestors dropped the “biscuit” or whatever? I notice the one Yank who recognized it had Cincinnati/Appalachian roots (like my Grandma).
Now You Know Big Book of Answers agrees with more detail.
63, lived in Montana, Florida, California, Massachusetts, New York (Buffalo), south Texas-- never heard it.
Canadian, 34, from SE Ontario. I say it occasionally. My mother uses it all the time (her parents were from the Maritimes); my father doesn’t (parents from E Georgian Bay). I’ve also heard the variants “Bit the biscuit,” and with /biscuit/ said in French.
American. Chicago - Washington DC - a and Wisconsin, Never heard it.
I have heard buscuit used as slang in two nearly opposite meanings
- “She’s a buscuit” – very cute
- “horse buscuit” leterally a piece of shit.
Here in Montreal, I’ve heard “bit the biscuit,” but never “had the biscuit.” From the OP I deduce that these two expressions mean the same thing.
44, Alabama. Never heard it.
As for “tump” I heard this a lot as a kid growing up in Alabama.
“Don’t stand up in the canoe. It’ll tump over.”
I don’t hear it as much anymore but my wife still says it.
Go to World Wide Words, Michael Quinion’s scholarly website.
He suggests that the Canadian version is indeed related to the Communion theory.
But the start of the whole thing was American in the 1800s.
But isn’t it possible that these are two different phrases with two different etymologies? The American phrasing is “take the biscuit” and has a different meaning than the Canadian “had the biscuit.” (And “bit the biscuit” sounds to me like the conflation of “had the biscuit” and “bit the dust” or perhaps its just more poetic alliteration.)
- Grew up in the Midwest (MI/IL/IA), been in New England (CT) for the last 16 years. Never heard it before.
But he says that “take the biscuit” in Canada has a second meaning, of worn out. That doesn’t sound right to me. The expression for that meaning that I’ve always heard is “had the biscuit,” not “take the biscuit.” I’m familiar with “take the biscuit,” but always with the meaning that he gives of exceptional behaviour.
It was a common expression in Atlantic Canada when I was growing up. Probably the young today would not know it. It’s equivalent to the similar idiom, “had the bird.” (That is, they mean the same thing.)
It meant, “it’s worn out, no longer usable, broken.” Like that.
It had nothing to do with communion.
Like this thread that had lain dormant for 2 1/2 years.
As long as this thread has been raised from the dead, let me add that the similar in construction, identical in meaning phrase, “had the radish” was actually in use in rural Vermont when I was growing up, and I use it quite often.
Vermont borders eastern Canada, so there may be some cross-border fertilization. I have also heard the variant “had the banana”, which may hint at a phallic origin for the phrase.
Brynda said it. Four years ago. But since we’re here in April/almost-May 2016, I’ll contribute that I’ve never ever heard this phrase, but if I’d heard it in the OP’s context I’d figger it out.
54, lived in Upstate NY, CT and CA. And spent 14 years in the military where you’re thrown together with folks from all over the US.