for dear life
16
5.9
- idiom
- Informal
:
con todas sus fuerzas
- There they are, standing together in gale force winds, holding on for dear life.
- hang on for dear life
- hold on for dear life
- cling for dear life
These extensions are hanging on for dear life.
- These extensions are hanging on for dear life.
- It shouldn't be like it shouldn't be clinging on for dear life, but it is in these.
- I was just cozy and cold and clinging to this story for dear life.
- If you can see Grace right now, she's holding on to her old hoodie for dear life.
- Then when we feel like it's, it's this thing that we have to, like, white knuckle our diet and hold on for dear life in order to, to sustain.
- You can see when you start to study people in fairgrounds, people really do hang on for dear life when they're on a ride.
- This white supremacist structure that we live in is clinging on to this patriarchal power for dear life.
- I urge you to hop on to this roller coaster ride through neomorphic computing and superconducting electronics and hold on for dear life.
Examples
-
I sat there, small and contemptible, holding on to the sidecar for dear life.
Fiction book (1995) -
Diamond and Eve, clinging to the horse for dear life, race towards him.
Fiction book (1996) -
Follow him around, hold on for dear life.
-
I had to hold on for dear life.
-
At first, all they could do was hang on for dear life.
Fiction book (1994) -
Scott and Kate, crying, grab their father and hold on for dear life.
Fiction book (1996) -
Just under five minutes left, and West Ham are clinging on for dear life.
-
Robin clings to the side of the rocket for dear life.
Fiction book (1997) -
Okay, we'll park it down there, grab on to that railing, hold on for dear life, and try not to pass out from the G's, okay?
-
As the roller coaster dipped, I held on for dear life to the safety bar.
Synonyms
366
3.6
In a very urgent way because you feel a strong need or fear
4
7.8
In a very urgent and determined way as if everything depended on it
They try very hard and fast, as if they would lose everything
Antonyms
How Desperate
Surface Forms
Morphology
The constituents 'dear' (precious) and 'life' (oneʼs existence) give a plausible literal image —"for the sake of oneʼs precious life"— which can suggest extreme effort or desperation, so part of the meaning is inferable from the words. However, the fixed prepositional idiomial use and the sense 'desperately/with great urgency' is a conventionalized extension that a B1 learner may not fully predict without exposure.
Etymology
For dear life comes from the idea that dear means 'very precious' or 'beloved', so people would hold on or run as if saving their life. That's why for dear life means doing something quickly or desperately, as if your life depends on it.