Do-or-die

adj

adj ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Adjective
  1. 1
    Requiring a determined or desperate effort to avoid the consequences of failure (Alternative form of do or die). idiomatic, not-comparable

    "At that period the L.N.W.R., with its Webb compounds, was addicted to late arrivals at Carlisle and the Caledonian proceeded to make up the arrears with a "do-or-die" attitude."

Adjective
  1. 1
    desperately determined wordnet

Synonyms

All synonyms
desperate

Example

More examples

"As we discussed previously, Algeria lived through one do-or-die moment against South Korea in group play. Today, they’ll hope to live through another as they take on Russia. If Les Fennecs can win, they’ll move on to the knockout stage along with Belgium. But if they lose, Russia advances. Watch the action live at 4 PM ET (8 PM UTC)."

Etymology

An adjectival phrase composed of the words: do, or, and die all connected by hyphens.

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.