Learn English – Origin of the phrase “drink you under the table”

People will use "heart attack", "plane crash", "fall off a cliff" as ways to describe that death might happen instantly, and the people left behind better be prepared in case that day happens.

This article talks about it: The Explainer Gets Hit by a Bus

Probably in the mid-20th century. The earliest instance the Explainer could find of a bus accident as a generic rather than literal example of misfortune is from Joseph Conrad's 1907 novel, The Secret Agent: "But just try to understand that it was a pure accident; as much an accident as if he had been run over by a 'bus while crossing the street."

In English, we use several metaphors to express this feeling which arises from being forbidden to speak.

• pent-up anger, trapped like an animal in a pen
• bottled up anger, trapped like a fluid in a sealed container
• stifled or smothered anger, stopped from healthy flow like a person who is suffocating

Bridle? Maybe. Literally, bridle, n., is the device for controlling a horse's head. Bridle, v., can mean to control a person or to control one's own visible reactions, as a rider controls a horse using a bridle (trans.). Or, it can mean to react with anger (not necessarily hidden) when one's will is interfered with (intrans.). The problem, then, is that bridled anger may be misunderstood to mean the act of bottling up an emotion, when what you meant was the resulting feeling.

Responding to the follow-up question about where we locate stifled anger: emotional reactions are located in the stomach not because of a cultural metaphor but because of a physical cause. Release of the stress hormone cortisol stimulates the body's “fight or flight” systems and disrupts other systems which might compete for resources, notably digestion. Extreme ongoing emotion can even cause evacuation of the digestive tract and bladder (the person may vomit, urinate, and defecate uncontrollably). This is thought to be an adaptation which enhances survival when one's life is threatened by an attacker.

In English, we often describe the experience of cortisol's effects as a visceral feeling, butterflies in the stomach, knot in the stomach, or sinking feeling in the pit of the stomach.

Several emotions can trigger the stress reaction, such as fear, anger, worry, and excitement. In the case of pent-up anger, the stress is continuous because the situation is unresolved, so we are likely to feel a knot in the stomach.