to the bitter end
8
5.5
- idiom
- Informal
:
hasta el amargo final
- We'll fight for our rights to the bitter end.
- fight to the bitter end
My guess is he still thinks he's smarter than all of us, and he's going to play this to the bitter end.
- My guess is he still thinks he's smarter than all of us, and he's going to play this to the bitter end.
- I would fight to the bitter end to make sure that I had equal visitation with my dogs.
Examples
-
"In the wars with the Mohawks, the grandmothers agreed with the tribal council to fight their enemy to the bitter end."
Academic text (2018) -
Sometimes you have to fight for your way of life to the bitter end.
Blog text (8) -
And he played it out to the bitter end.
-
We're going to take it to the bitter end.
Fiction book (2000) -
We fought to the bitter end.
-
You can trust us to stick to you through thick and thin, to the bitter end.
-
He is going to fight you to the bitter end.
-
Jeff Monken's Eagles played hard to the bitter end.
Blog text (1) -
Nixon's advisors urged him to litigate to the bitter end.
Blog text (27) -
We'll fight for our rights to the bitter end.
Synonyms
167
3.6
To keep trying and not give up when things are hard
22
5.1
Keep trying to do something even when it is hard
16
4.6
To keep working on a task until it is finished, even when it is hard
1
7.7
To work hard for a long time on a difficult task without stopping
1
9.2
To keep going without giving up after facing many hard times
Antonyms
How Determined
49
7.2
- Informal
8
5.5
Surface Forms
Morphology
The phrase combines 'bitter' (unpleasant, harsh) with 'end' (final point) and the preposition 'to' signaling extent, so its sense of persisting until an unpleasant or final point is directly inferable from the parts. This compositional metaphor is common across languages and follows normal adjective+noun and prepositional patterns, making it accessible to a B1 learner who knows the constituent words.
Etymology
The idiom to the bitter end may come from old ships. Sailors tied a rope to a wooden post called 'bitts', and when only the last bit of rope reached that post it was the bitter end. So, the phrase came to mean 'to keep going until the very end'.