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There are several reasons why people use euphemisms:

For Protection

Euphemisms for death and dying are often used to protect someone, whether it's the person speaking the words or those hearing them. We may be looking for a more gentle way to deliver the news of death to someone or a way to provide comfort, despite the grief of the situation.

The goal here is to avoid increasing the hurt and pain of someone by being too direct since that could be interpreted and felt as being blunt, crass, or rude. We want to protect those around us by not "rubbing it in," so we might use a euphemism to refer to death.

Death and dying are a natural part of life, but they make many people feel uncomfortable or anxious. Other kinds of language may be easier to use and less anxiety-provoking.

In order to use direct words about death, the speaker has to deal with his or her own feelings of grief and loss. Explaining to someone else that a loved one "didn't make it" is sometimes easier than saying that "she died." Death is final, and saying it out loud can be difficult when we're struggling to cope with the situation.

Similarly, using the word "dead" makes it difficult to deny the reality. And, psychologically, while denial clearly needs to turn to acceptance, a little bit of denial is not all bad as a short-term coping mechanism. Indirect language can sometimes be a helpful way to mentally and emotionally handle your feelings gradually.

For those who believe in certain faiths, the emphasis in death is the afterlife. Thus, saying that someone "went to be with the Lord" may not be an avoidance tactic at all, but rather a shared reminder of the comfort found in that belief.

MEDICAL EUPHEMISMS FOR:

• Died: passed away, departed, bit the big one, bought the farm, bit the dust, croaked, kicked the bucket, took the eternal celestial dirt-nap (Neal Boortz-ism), gave up the ghost, pushing up daisies, departed, didn't make it, is in a better place, expired
• Obese: overweight, big-boned, portly
• Pregnancy: bun in the oven, eating for two, expecting, in a delicate condition, in the family way, the rabbit died
• Short stature: vertically challenged
• Elderly: senior, mature, over the hill
• Vomit: barf, blow chunks, blow groceries, boot, drive the porcelain bus, emesis, heave, hurl, lose your lunch, puke, ralph, regurgitate, reverse peristalsis, retch, throw up, seasick, toss chunks, toss your cookies, upchuck, yak
• Flatulence: pass gas, fart, break wind 

According to the Merriam-Webster dictionary an idiom is  an expression in the usage of a language that is peculiar to itself either in having a meaning that cannot be derived from the conjoined meanings of its elements (such as up in the air for "undecided") or in its grammatically atypical use of words (such as give way) .

A

• A  spoonful of sugar makes the medicine go down
• About to croak (die)
• Alive and kicking (survived an illness)
• All in your head (imaginary)
• An apple a day keeps the doctor away (eat a good diet for good health)
• Ants in your pants (nervous)
• At death's door (very ill)

B

• Bag of bones (thin)
• Back on your feet (recovering)
• Bitter pill to swallow (difficult o accept)
• Black and blue (bruised)
• Black out (lose consciousness)
• Bladder the size of a peanut (small)
• Bleeding out (losing blood rapidly)
• Body language (body position revealing your state of mind)
• Brain fog (confused)
• Brain freeze (headache from eating or drinking something cold)
• Brain is scrambled (confused)
• Break out in a cold sweat (nervous, perspiration from feeling ill)
• Bright eyed and bushy tailed - like a squirrel (feels very well)
• Bun in the oven (pregnant)
• Bundle of nerves (agitated, very nervous)
• Burned out (hard to continue work due to stress)
• Burning up (feverish)
• Bursting with health (very well)
• Butterflies in your stomach (nervous)

C

• Call in sick (not go to work due to illness)
• Cancer stick (cigarette)
• Cast iron stomach (can eat anything without getting ill)
• Catch one's death of cold (gets a severe common cold)
• Chipper (feeling well)
• Clean bill of health (no illness found)
• Coffin nail (cigarette)
• Cold as ice (very cold)
• Comes to a head (as in a pimple or peak of an illness)
• Cramp up (get muscle cramps)

D

• Death warmed over (feeling very bad)
• Doubled over in pain (hurting badly to the point of being bent over in pain)
• Drag your feet (hesitate, walk slowly)
• Dragging around (tired)
• Driving the porcelain bus (vomiting)

E

• Eating for two (pregnant)

F

• Feel on top of the world (feeling excellent)
• Feel blue (sad)
• Feel fair to middling (doing very well)
• Fighting fit (in good health)
• Fine fettle (in good health)
• Flare up (having illness act up suddenly))
• Frog in one's throat (hoarse)
• Full of beans (well)
• Full of energy (able to do lots of things, very well)
• Full of vim and vigor (energetic)
• Fuzzy headed (not thinking clearly)

G

• Get a charley horse (get muscle cramps)
• Glowing with health (looking very well)
• Going under the knife (having surgery)
• Green around the gills (feels nauseated)

H

• Head full of cobwebs (confused, unclear)

I

• In a sorry state (not in good health)
• In good physical condition (well)
• In good shape (good muscle conditioning)
• In good trim (physically fit)
• In the family way (pregnant)
• In the pink (in good health)
• Intestinal flu (diarrhea)
• Iron constitution (not prone to sickness)

J

• Just what the doctor ordered (doing or taking what you need to be better)

K

• Kick the bucket (die)

L

• Laid up (injured and not able to work)
• Land of the living (alive)
• Land on your feet (recover)
• Laughter is the best medicine (illness improved by humor)
• Lose your lunch (vomit)
• Lose your mind (lose your sanity)

M

• Montezuma's revenge (diarrhea)
• My dogs are barking (my feet hurt)
• My throat is a parched desert

N

• Not sleep a wink (up all night)

O

• On the mend (recovering)
• On borrowed time (dying)
• On one's last leg (dying)
• On the sick list (ill)
• One foot in the grave (dying)
• One foot on a banana peel the other in the grave (dying)
• One sick puppy (very ill)
• Out of breath (difficulty breathing)
• Out of shape (deconditioned)
• Over the hill (elderly)

P

• Pass out (lose consciousness)
• Pickled liver (cirrhosis from alcohol)
• Picture of health (very healthy)
• Pins and needles (tingling and numb sensation)
• Pull through (recover from an illness)

R

• Razor blades in your throat
• Runs in the family (a specific medical problem in multiple family members)

S

• Scratch one's eyes out (severely rub one's eyes due to itching)
• Sick to one's stomach (nauseated)
• Skin and bones (lost a lot of weight)
• Skin is crawling (itchy sensation like bugs crawling)
• Snake oil (quack medicine)
• Snakebite medicine (hard alcohol, especially whiskey)
• Socialized medicine (government healthcare)
• Spare tire (excess fat around the waist)
• Splitting headache (migraine)
• Swimmy headed (dizzy)

T

• Take a dose of one's own medicine (take your own medical advice)
• Take a turn for the better (improving)
• Take a turn for the worse (getting more ill)
• The runs (diarrhea)
• The squirts (diarrhea)
• The trots (diarrhea)
• Toss your cookies (vomit)

U

• Under the weather (sick)
• Up and about (walking around, ambulating)
• Up to snuff (not feeling too badly)
• Upset stomach (indigestion, heartburn, nausea)

V

• Violently ill (nauseated)

W

• Waste away (severe weight loss)
• Weak at the knees (hard to stand due to weakness)
• Well fed (overweight)
• Widow's peak (hair loss pattern)
• Winded (short of breath)

Y

• Your color is good (you look well, you have pink cheeks)

• A hospital is no place to be sick - Samuel Goldwyn
• Age is mind over matter; if you don't mind it doesn't matter
• Always go to other people's funerals, otherwise they won't come to yours - Yogi Berra
• Anyone who goes to a psychiatrist ought to have his head examined - Samuel Goldwyn
• He was dead but he got better
• I am sure I am growing smaller as I get older
• I distinctly remember forgetting that
• I have a terrible memory. I never forget a thing
• She used to diet on any kind of food she could lay her hands on 
• The best cure for insomnia is to get a lot of sleep. - W.C. Fields
• We are not anticipating any emergencies 

Palindrome: A word, verse, sentence or number (i.e. 1881) that is spelled the same backward or forward

• Aibohphobia: (noun) fear of palindromes (this word itself is a palindrome)
• Doc, Note: I Dissent. A Fast Never Prevents A Fatness. I Diet On Cod. (14 words, 52 letters)
• Eye
• Nurse, I spy gypsies. Run. Was it a bar or a bat I saw? Was it a bar or a bat I saw. Nurse I spy  gypsies, run. (28 words, 76 letters)