fight tooth and nail

== English == === Alternative forms === with tooth and nail === Etymology === From the Middle English phrase (with) nayles and teþ (“viciously, ferociously”, literally “(with) nails and teeth”). === Adverb === tooth and nail (figurative) Viciously; with all one's strength or power; without holding back. Synonyms: tooth and claw; tooth, fang, and claw a. 1884, Charles Reade, 1887, Charles L. Reade, Compton Reade, Charles Reade, Dramatist, Novelist, Journalist: A Memoir Compiled Chiefly from His Literary Remains, Volume 2, page 229: "I shall fight tooth and nail for international copyright and stage-right, […] ." 2011 Allen Gregory, "Pilot" (season 1, episode 1): Jeremy DeLongpre: Yeah, about that Tony nomination. Richard DeLongpre: Yeah, apparently they don't nominate plays that are staged in our living room. Not over, fighting 'em tooth and nail on it. ==== Usage notes ==== The variant with tooth and nail is attested as early as the 16th century; see for example Arthur Golding, The Psalmes of David and others. With M. John Calvins Commentaries, 1571, “Epistle Dedicatorie”:[4] [They] labour with tooth and nayle too winde their owne trash into credit with all men, and to bring the heavenly doctrine of the Gospel in hatred. The variant tooth, nail, and claw is attested to at least the 19th century; see The Manhattan, 1883, “Rambles in and around Lisbon”:[5] The other moiety of the noble boyhood of the capital consecrates its budding energies to the traffic in crickets—insects of a most bloody and combative disposition, prepared at short notice to fight tooth, nail and claw with any other crickets against which they may be pitted. The variant tooth and claw sometimes appears (though not as an adverb) as the fuller phrase nature, red in tooth and claw, which quotes 1850, Alfred Tennyson, In Memoriam A. H. H. — Who trusted God was love indeed And love Creation’s final law? Tho’ Nature, red in tooth and claw With ravine, shriek’d against his creed? ==== Collocations ==== fight tooth and nail defend (something) tooth and nail try tooth and nail oppose (something) tooth and nail battle tooth and nail ==== Translations ====