Word.ws English Dictionary

does or dies

does or dies is the third-person singular simple present indicative of do or die.

Meaning of do or die

Verb

do or die (third-person singular simple present does or dies, present participle doing or dying, simple past did or died, past participle done or died)

  1. (idiomatic) To act with sufficient urgency to result in either immediate success or immediate failure.
    • Emanuel: Bless us, dear Fortune! / Armusia: Let us be worthy of it in our courage, and Fortune must befriend us. Come, all sever; but keep still within sight: when the flame rises let's meet, and either do or die.1621 (first literary attestation), John Fletcher, The Island Princess act 2.scene 2

See all 2 meanings of do or die

Questions about does or dies

What is does or dies the third-person singular simple present indicative of?
Does or dies is the third-person singular simple present indicative of do or die.

Words near does or dies in the dictionary

  1. does one's sums
  2. does one's thing
  3. does one's utmost
  4. does one's worst
  5. does oneself a mischief
  6. does or dies
  7. does out
  8. does out of
  9. does over
  10. does porridge
  11. does right by

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: does or dies (page history and authors); do or die (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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