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Glite Dictionary
to fight to the death

to fight to the death

18 7.0
To keep fighting until one side is defeated, even if people die
  • idiom
translation icon : luchar hasta la muerte
  • They knew their only option was to fight to the death to defend their homeland.
  • willing to fight to the death
  • gladiators fight to the death
  • ready to fight to the death

So these guys will fight to the death for this stuff.

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Examples

  • During the fierce battle, the soldiers vowed to fight to the death rather than surrender.

  • Looking east to the Colosseum, I hear the roar of the crowd as two gladiators fight to the death.

    Academic text (2009)

  • Your Colonel wants you to fight to the death.

    Che: Part One (2008)

  • I hear they fight to the death.

    Blood Circus (2017)

  • This is my land now, and I will fight to the death for it.

    Calypso (2019)

  • If you love that woman the way I think you do... sometimes in life you gotta fight to the death.

    Cousins (1989)

  • I will fight to the death to protect this instrument.

    The Soloist (2009)

  • Will you fight to the death, giving no quarter and receiving none?

    El Cid (1961)

  • They will fight to the death.

    The Man in the Iron Mask (1998)

  • We will fight to the death to stop you for our children's sake.

    Blog text (17)

Synonyms

to the death
vsto fight to the death
49 7.2

With strong determination to keep fighting until someone dies

is about a contest that ends only when one side is completely defeated
to slug it out
vsto fight to the death
  • Informal
7 8.0

Fight or compete hard until one side wins

involves fighting until complete defeat, not just deciding a winner

Antonyms

to retreat
235 4.0

To move back from a place or plan to avoid danger

surrender
77 4.2

Giving up after defeat, for example when an army stops fighting

How Determined

to fight to the death
18 7.0
to fight back
188 3.3
to fight
∞ 1.0

Surface Forms

fight to the death infinitive
fighting to the death present participle
fights to the death third person singular
fought to the death past
fought to the death past participle

Morphology

fight + to + the + death

The meaning is directly built from 'fight' + the prepositional phrase 'to the death' (i.e., until death), so a learner who knows 'fight' and 'death' can infer it means to fight until one side dies. The pattern 'to the death' as an intensifier meaning 'until someone dies or is completely defeated' is cross-linguistically common, making the construction transparent to B1 learners.

Etymology

Fight to the death comes from hard scenes like old duels or gladiator games, where two people had to fight until death ended the contest. So the strong image of fighting until death is why the phrase means 'to fight or compete until one side is completely defeated'.