to the death
49
7.2
- idiom
:
hasta la muerte
- I knew my men would fight with me to the death.
- fight to the death
- struggle to the death
Like a guy can't just request trial by combat to the death, I mean judges.
- Like a guy can't just request trial by combat to the death, I mean judges.
- They would fight you to the death so they didn't have to pay spousal support.
- Yeah, but she no doubt is probably going to fight me to the death for for these.
- What is the biggest animal or what animals could you beat to the death?
- So in she goes and this is pretty much a race to the death.
- Your mindset, you have to come in with a budo mindset, which is to the death.
- What So but every male comedian is out front, you know, defending them to the death.
- You know, humans are so tribal and I felt this immediate like reason, my tribe, we're Okies, like I will defend her to the death.
- The immune cells of the Caterpillar fight to the death, the cells in the in inside that are responsible for turning it into a butterfly.
- I'm going to keep fighting to the death for my side.
Examples
-
We've got more soldiers and they'll go all the way... to the death if they have to.
-
They will fight to the death.
-
Your Colonel wants you to fight to the death.
-
And it was a battle to the death.
-
Your job is to fight him to the death.
Fiction book (2000) -
But as the saying goes, I will defend to the death your right to do it.
-
Go into the hills and defend it to the death.
Academic text (2013) -
It was to be a fight to the death, with no exceptions.
-
Now, two noble men from our audience will battle to the death to resolve a grievance.
Fiction book (1996) -
The warriors pledged to fight to the death in defense of their homeland.
Synonyms
62
3.7
To do whatever is necessary, even if it is risky
24
3.9
Do something as fully as possible
23
4.1
Willing to do anything to get something, even if it is dangerous or expensive
16
5.9
Very quickly because you are afraid of danger
13
7.7
As much as possible
8
6.0
Completely and without holding anything back
8
5.5
Keep doing something until it is completely finished, even when it is very hard
2
8.8
A very deep feeling that reaches someone's heart
Antonyms
How Determined
49
7.2
- Informal
8
5.5
Surface Forms
Morphology
to + the + death
The phrase literally composes 'to' + 'the' + 'death', so its core meaning — continuing until death or until someone dies — is directly derivable from the constituents. This endpoint sense (fight/struggle until death) is cross-linguistically common and follows a transparent compositional pattern that a B1 learner who knows the words would readily understand.
Etymology
To the death comes from old fights and duels where people kept fighting until one person reached death. So the image of that last fight explains why it now means being willing to keep going with total commitment, even if it risks 'death'.