Word.ws English Dictionary

to the death

to the death prepositional phrase: that will continue until one of the contestants dies.

Prepositional phrase

  1. (set phrase) That will continue until one of the contestants dies.
    • The two gladiators fought to the death.
    • Within the independent government of the East Turkestan Republic, while Sabid-da-Mulla insisted upon defending the Old City of Kashgar to the death, Mahum and Nias wanted to quit the Old City for the time being, withdraw to Ying-chi-sha, and plan a second uprising.1946 December 5, Military Information: Sinkiang Rebellions 1931-1937, page 9
  2. (idiomatic) To the utmost degree.
    • Then, alluding with a toss of the head to the tumult in the station-yard, ‘When one has got to make correct entries, one comes to hate those savages - hate them to the death.’ He remained thoughtful for a moment.1899 February, Joseph Conrad, “The Heart of Darkness”, in Blackwood’s Edinburgh Magazine, volume CLXV, number M, New York, N.Y.: The Leonard Scott Publishing Company, […], →OCLC, part I, page 208

Words formed from to the death

Questions about to the death

What does to the death mean?
To the death means that will continue until one of the contestants dies.
What part of speech is to the death?
To the death is a prepositional phrase.

Words near to the death in the dictionary

  1. to the bones
  2. to the brim
  3. to the contrary
  4. to the core
  5. to the day
  6. to the death
  7. to the dot
  8. to the effect
  9. to the end of the chapter
  10. to the end of time
  11. to the exclusion of

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: to the death (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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