Word.ws English Dictionary

doing or dying

doing or dying is the present participle and gerund 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 doing or dying

What is doing or dying the present participle and gerund of?
Doing or dying is the present participle and gerund of do or die.

Words near doing or dying in the dictionary

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

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: doing or dying (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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