tooth and nail
adverb
with all one's resources or energy; fiercely: We fought tooth and nail but lost.
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Nearby words
toorie, tooshie, toot, toot one's own horn, tooth, tooth and nail, tooth ax, tooth bud, tooth chisel, tooth decay, tooth fairy
Origin of tooth and nail
First recorded in 1525–35
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019
Examples from the Web for tooth and nail
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 Shackleton|Darrell Hartman|January 12, 2014|DAILY BEASTWhen I do, it will be a tooth-and-nail fight, and I must be equipped with facts, not theories.
The Crevice|William John Burns and Isabel Ostrander
Culture definitions for tooth and nail
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.”
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.