go to the wall
Idioms-
Lose a conflict, be defeated; also, yield. For example, In spite of their efforts, they went to the wall , or When it's a matter of family versus friends, friends must go to the wall . [Late 1500s]
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Fail in business, go bankrupt. For example, First one branch and then another did poorly, and the store finally went to the wall . [First half of 1800s]
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Take an extreme position, hold out to the end. For example, The President went to the wall to defend his choice to head the FBI . For a synonym, see go to the mat .
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’ll go to the wall to keep it open space,” Gordon Murley, president of the Woodland Hills Homeowners Organization, said at the time.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 22, 2026
“We have to go to the wall to defend those private properties, and that is the end of the story,” he said.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Dec. 21, 2025
Thousands of small and medium Kuwaiti businesses could go to the wall after being walloped by the pandemic, potentially torpedoing a private sector central to the country's efforts to remake its unorthodox and oil-pumped economy.
From Reuters ● Aug. 12, 2021
“You need to be sure that the input you’re giving, you’re willing to go to the wall with it.”
From Seattle Times ● Jul. 29, 2018
If the Company is allowed once to go to the wall, the remedial measures proposed will be useless because too late.
From The Day of Sir John Macdonald A Chronicle of the First Prime Minister of the Dominion by Sir Joseph Pope
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
