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tooth and nail

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adverb

with all one's resources or energy; fiercely: We fought tooth and nail but lost.

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

Contemporary Examples of tooth and nail

Historical Examples of tooth and nail

  • When 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

tooth and nail in Culture

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.