Word.ws English Dictionary

either did or died

either did or died is the simple past of either do or die.

Meaning of either do or die

Verb

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

Questions about either did or died

What is either did or died the simple past of?
Either did or died is the simple past of either do or die.

Words near either did or died in the dictionary

  1. EITCs
  2. Eitel
  3. eitelite
  4. Eitels
  5. either
  6. either did or died
  7. either do or die
  8. either does or dies
  9. either doing or dying
  10. either done or died
  11. either way

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: either did or died (page history and authors); either 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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