Word.ws English Dictionary

for dear life

for dear life adverb: desperately.

Adverb

for dear life (not comparable)

  1. (idiomatic) Desperately.
    • Paolo sat crosslegged on his bench, stitching away for dear life.1896, Jacob A. Riis, Out of Mulberry Street: Stories of Tenement Life in New York City, published 1970, →ISBN
    • As they passed, accelerating, on to the bridge and felt the first bite of the incline beyond, one had a fleeting glimpse of driver and fireman, illumined as by the fires of hell, the one tugging at the regulator handle, the other shovelling for dear life.1953 December, Henry Maxwell, “The Folkestone Harbour Branch: Some Evocations”, in Railway Magazine, page 809
    Synonyms:
    for life

for dear life meaning in Malayalam

for dear life in Malayalam

desperately, with all one's might, with might and main
പ്രാണനുവേണ്ടി, മരണത്തി പിടിയിൽനിന്നു രക്ഷപെടാൻ വേണ്ടി, ജീവൻ രക്ഷിക്കാൻ വേണ്ടി, നിരാശകൊണ്ടു സാഹസികമായി, എല്ലാശക്തിയുമെടുത്ത്, ഗതികെട്ട്

Examples of for dear life in a sentence

  • After 12 successive league wins[…]Charlton were nobbled by the First Division's no-hopers, who profited from a goalkeeping bloomer then held on to their lead for dear life.2000 March 12, Stuart Barnes, “Swindon stunner for Curbishley”, in The Guardian, →ISSN:
  • We want you to see that these years can be a rollercoaster ride where sometimes you have to hang on for dear life—but you will come through it.2012, Jack Canfield, Mark Victor Hansen, Chicken Soup for the Girl's Soul, →ISBN:
  • Each morning you get in the roller coaster car, strap yourself in, and hold on for dear life hoping you won't throw up or pass out.2014, Jillian Carmichael, Middle School Crazy, →ISBN, page 1:
  • Then came the collision: it was "like a rollercoaster ride" and she held onto the table in front of her "for dear life.2021 February 24, Greg Morse, “Great Heck: a tragic chain of events”, in RAIL, number 925, page 39:

Synonyms of for dear life

Questions about for dear life

What does for dear life mean?
For dear life means desperately.
What is for dear life in Malayalam?
For dear life in Malayalam is പ്രാണനുവേണ്ടി, മരണത്തി പിടിയിൽനിന്നു രക്ഷപെടാൻ വേണ്ടി, ജീവൻ രക്ഷിക്കാൻ വേണ്ടി. See For dear life meaning in Malayalam.
How do you use for dear life in a sentence?
After 12 successive league wins[…]Charlton were nobbled by the First Division's no-hopers, who profited from a goalkeeping bloomer then held on to their lead for dear life.
What part of speech is for dear life?
For dear life is an adverb.

Words near for dear life in the dictionary

  1. for cripes' sake
  2. for cryin' out loud
  3. for crying in the beer
  4. for crying out loud
  5. for days
  6. for dear life
  7. for dummies
  8. for England
  9. for ever
  10. for ever and ever
  11. for ever more

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: for dear life (page history and authors); for dear life (Olam, E.K. Kurup corpus) (dataset and license). 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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Cite this entry: “for dear life.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/for_dear_life. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.