fight tooth and nail

Idioms

Engage in vigorous combat or make a strenuous effort, using all one's resources. For example, I'm going to fight tooth and nail for that promotion. This expression, with its allusion to biting and scratching, was first recorded in 1576.

Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

"We had to fight tooth and nail for that result," said Smith.

From Barron's • Oct. 12, 2025

"This company which has been here for more than 150 years we will fight tooth and nail to protect and maintain jobs for future generations," he said.

From BBC • Apr. 28, 2025

“We’ve always had to fight tooth and nail for our place in this world,” the group said in a news release Wednesday.

From Seattle Times • May 28, 2024

This makes for a series of incredibly uncomfortable scenes with the couple who fight tooth and nail to get back to the connection they thought had in the pods.

From Salon • Oct. 2, 2023

As with everything else he attempted, he had to fight tooth and nail to win a seat in the stern of one of Al Ulbrickson’s boats.

From "The Boys in the Boat: Nine Americans and Their Epic Quest for Gold at the 1936 Berlin Olympics" by Daniel James Brown

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023