Word.ws English Dictionary

either doing or dying

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

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

Words near either doing or dying in the dictionary

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

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: either doing or dying (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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