tooth and nail
- with all one's resources or energy; fiercely: We fought tooth and nail but lost.
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Origin of tooth and nail
First recorded in 1525–35
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018
Examples from the Web for tooth and nail
Contemporary Examples
Imperiled as he is, he cannot recreate the tooth-and-nail desperation that fueled Shackleton.
Polar Explorer vs. Reality TV Crew: Tim Jarvis in the Footsteps of ShackletonDarrell Hartman
January 12, 2014
Historical Examples
When I do, it will be a tooth-and-nail fight, and I must be equipped with facts, not theories.
The CreviceWilliam John Burns and Isabel Ostrander
tooth and nail
To fight “tooth and nail” is to fight with the intensity and ferocity of a wild animal: “The resistance forces fought the invading troops tooth and nail.”
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The New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy, Third Edition
Copyright © 2005 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.