"do-or-die" meaning in All languages combined

See do-or-die on Wiktionary

Adjective [English]

Audio: en-au-do-or-die.ogg [Australia] Forms: do or die [alternative]
Etymology: An adjectival phrase composed of the words: do, or, and die all conjoined by hyphens. Head templates: {{en-adj|-}} do-or-die (not comparable)
  1. (idiomatic) Requiring a determined or desperate effort in order to avoid the consequences of failure. Tags: idiomatic, not-comparable Related terms: sink or swim Translations (desperate effort): marche ou crève (French), courir ou mourir (French), करो या मरो (karo yā maro) (Hindi), duga eða drepast (Icelandic), ranga mārō (Māori), matar ou morrer (Portuguese), a matar o morir (Spanish), செய் அல்லது செத்து மடி (cey allatu cettu maṭi) (Tamil)
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  "lang_code": "en",
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          "text": "At that period the L.N.W.R., with its Webb compounds, was addicted to late arrivals at Carlisle and the Caledonian proceeded to make up the arrears with a \"do-or-die\" attitude.",
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          "ref": "2020 August 24, Kaori Enjoji, “‘Do or die’ mentality brings Japanese PM Shinzo Abe to the brink”, in CNN, archived from the original on 23 May 2025:",
          "text": "The do-or-die mentality gambaru permeates Japanese society, where the pursuit of a goal can carry more significance than the outcome.",
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          "ref": "2021 June 30, Farhad Manjoo, “Democrats Have a Year to Save the Planet”, in The New York Times, →ISSN, archived from the original on 30 Aug 2021:",
          "text": "This could be our do-or-die moment — with Democrats holding the White House and barely controlling Congress, this may be the country’s last best political opportunity to do something big on the climate.",
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        "Requiring a determined or desperate effort in order to avoid the consequences of failure."
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        "(idiomatic) Requiring a determined or desperate effort in order to avoid the consequences of failure."
      ],
      "related": [
        {
          "word": "sink or swim"
        }
      ],
      "tags": [
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        "not-comparable"
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      "translations": [
        {
          "code": "fr",
          "lang": "French",
          "lang_code": "fr",
          "sense": "desperate effort",
          "word": "marche ou crève"
        },
        {
          "code": "fr",
          "lang": "French",
          "lang_code": "fr",
          "sense": "desperate effort",
          "word": "courir ou mourir"
        },
        {
          "code": "hi",
          "lang": "Hindi",
          "lang_code": "hi",
          "roman": "karo yā maro",
          "sense": "desperate effort",
          "word": "करो या मरो"
        },
        {
          "code": "is",
          "lang": "Icelandic",
          "lang_code": "is",
          "sense": "desperate effort",
          "word": "duga eða drepast"
        },
        {
          "code": "mi",
          "lang": "Māori",
          "lang_code": "mi",
          "sense": "desperate effort",
          "word": "ranga mārō"
        },
        {
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          "lang": "Portuguese",
          "lang_code": "pt",
          "sense": "desperate effort",
          "word": "matar ou morrer"
        },
        {
          "code": "es",
          "lang": "Spanish",
          "lang_code": "es",
          "sense": "desperate effort",
          "word": "a matar o morir"
        },
        {
          "code": "ta",
          "lang": "Tamil",
          "lang_code": "ta",
          "roman": "cey allatu cettu maṭi",
          "sense": "desperate effort",
          "word": "செய் அல்லது செத்து மடி"
        }
      ]
    }
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  "word": "do-or-die"
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          "text": "At that period the L.N.W.R., with its Webb compounds, was addicted to late arrivals at Carlisle and the Caledonian proceeded to make up the arrears with a \"do-or-die\" attitude.",
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          "ref": "2020 August 24, Kaori Enjoji, “‘Do or die’ mentality brings Japanese PM Shinzo Abe to the brink”, in CNN, archived from the original on 23 May 2025:",
          "text": "The do-or-die mentality gambaru permeates Japanese society, where the pursuit of a goal can carry more significance than the outcome.",
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            [
              18,
              27
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          "ref": "2021 June 30, Farhad Manjoo, “Democrats Have a Year to Save the Planet”, in The New York Times, →ISSN, archived from the original on 30 Aug 2021:",
          "text": "This could be our do-or-die moment — with Democrats holding the White House and barely controlling Congress, this may be the country’s last best political opportunity to do something big on the climate.",
          "type": "quotation"
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      ],
      "glosses": [
        "Requiring a determined or desperate effort in order to avoid the consequences of failure."
      ],
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          "Requiring",
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          "determined",
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        "(idiomatic) Requiring a determined or desperate effort in order to avoid the consequences of failure."
      ],
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    {
      "code": "fr",
      "lang": "French",
      "lang_code": "fr",
      "sense": "desperate effort",
      "word": "marche ou crève"
    },
    {
      "code": "fr",
      "lang": "French",
      "lang_code": "fr",
      "sense": "desperate effort",
      "word": "courir ou mourir"
    },
    {
      "code": "hi",
      "lang": "Hindi",
      "lang_code": "hi",
      "roman": "karo yā maro",
      "sense": "desperate effort",
      "word": "करो या मरो"
    },
    {
      "code": "is",
      "lang": "Icelandic",
      "lang_code": "is",
      "sense": "desperate effort",
      "word": "duga eða drepast"
    },
    {
      "code": "mi",
      "lang": "Māori",
      "lang_code": "mi",
      "sense": "desperate effort",
      "word": "ranga mārō"
    },
    {
      "code": "pt",
      "lang": "Portuguese",
      "lang_code": "pt",
      "sense": "desperate effort",
      "word": "matar ou morrer"
    },
    {
      "code": "es",
      "lang": "Spanish",
      "lang_code": "es",
      "sense": "desperate effort",
      "word": "a matar o morir"
    },
    {
      "code": "ta",
      "lang": "Tamil",
      "lang_code": "ta",
      "roman": "cey allatu cettu maṭi",
      "sense": "desperate effort",
      "word": "செய் அல்லது செத்து மடி"
    }
  ],
  "word": "do-or-die"
}

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This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable All languages combined dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2026-10-03 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2026-09-02 using wiktextract (1a05e46 and e3d6d4e). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.

If you use this data in academic research, please cite Tatu Ylonen: Wiktextract: Wiktionary as Machine-Readable Structured Data, Proceedings of the 13th Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation (LREC), pp. 1317-1325, Marseille, 20-25 June 2022. Linking to the relevant page(s) under https://kaikki.org would also be greatly appreciated.