Everyone has an expiration date. It’s not possible to live forever, so it’s important to recognize and prepare for the fact that you won’t always be around.
While this may seem a little somber or morbid, it’s just a natural fact of life.
Throughout your life, they spend a lot of time working to survive and grow.
After a long day, you may covet a good night’s sleep, but when you wake up in the morning, you’ll have to start the routine over again.
However, when that final day comes, you won’t wake up again, so you’ll finally have a chance to “rest easy.”
Still, this phrase doesn’t always have to be used when someone still isn’t around.
You probably have to deal with deadlines, timetables, and other stressful expectations in your day-to-day life.
When the stressful times temporarily pass, you can “rest easy” until the next big challenge.
What is the Meaning of “Rest Easy”?
First off, this phrase can be used to express respect for the dead. When somebody passes away, they are in a better place, and they can finally “rest easy.” In life, people often “rest easy” after a stressful event or when they find out that a situation is better than they had previously expected. Hence, when you tell somebody to “rest easy,” you’re either telling someone who has passed away to “rest in peace,” or you’re telling somebody that they no longer need to worry about something.
When and How to Use the Expression “Rest Easy”
While this phrase is somewhat informal, it wouldn’t be considered offensive or crass to use it in certain professional situations.
If your department were to avoid some sort of catastrophe, then it would be fine to tell your coworkers to “rest easy.” This phrase can be used similarly in less formal environments.
In the following example, Yuri is visiting his grandfather’s casket and paying his respects at a funeral.
Yuri: I know that you had a hard life, and I’m going to miss you. I hope that you’re in a better place. Rest easy, Gramps. In the next example, a few friends are planning a trip to Wales, and they are worried about some of the details.
Max: Uh-oh! Our flight leaves tomorrow, but I’m on the country’s travel website now, and it looks like we need special visas to visit that country. These visas take several days to process, so I think that we will have to cancel our flights.
Stella: Really? That’s so sad. Our vacation is ruined!
Arnelle: Chill out! Residents of our country can enter Wales and stay for 90 days without any special visa. You two can rest easy. We don’t have to cancel our vacation.
Max: Thank goodness! I must have looked at the wrong information.
In both examples, this phrase is used in more serious situations. However, this phrase can also be used humorously in any context where you can make a joke about death or any stressful situation.
With that in mind, you should make sure to only joke about such things in the right context. Otherwise, you could offend someone.
The Origin of the Phrase “Rest Easy”
The term “rest in peace” became common on Christian tombstones at some point in the 1700s. Before “rest in peace” entered common use in English, similar terms had been used in other languages since the 400s.
Eventually, “rest easy” and some other phrases developed from this term and entered the modern vernacular.
Hey fellow Linguaholics! It’s me, Marcel. I am the proud owner of linguaholic.com. Languages have always been my passion and I have studied Linguistics, Computational Linguistics and Sinology at the University of Zurich. It is my utmost pleasure to share with all of you guys what I know about languages and linguistics in general.