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do-or-die
[ doo-er-dahy ]
adjective
- reflecting or characterized by an irrevocable decision to succeed at all costs; desperate; all-out:
a do-or-die attempt to halt the invaders.
- involving a potentially fatal crisis or crucial emergency.
do-or-die
adjective
- prenominal of or involving a determined and sometimes reckless effort to succeed
Word History and Origins
Origin of do-or-die1
Idioms and Phrases
Exert supreme effort because failure is close at hand, as in Carol was going to set up the computer, do or die . This hyperbolic expression in effect says one will not be deterred by any obstacle. [c. 1600]Example Sentences
Daniels doesn’t feel pressure; he’s laughing in the huddle in do-or-die moments.
"It is big. It's not quite do-or-die time but it's getting pretty close."
He says he felt it for his new Peacock thriller series, "Teacup," where he plays a complicated father and husband whose family is thrown into a terrifying do-or-die mystery.
In any case, nothing about the party’s exhausting, alarmist messaging or its murky self-image is going to change dramatically in the last week before a do-or-die national election.
The game finished with the Dodger bullpen that had been so brilliant in a Game 4 do-or-die win, this time four relievers holding the Padres hitless over the final four innings.
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Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
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