be fighting for your life
be fighting for (one's)/its life
1. To be close to death, but with the possibility of recovery. Chris is fighting for his life after that accident. The doctors aren't sure that he'll survive the night.
2. To be close to failure, but with the possibility of recovery. Because the business is fighting for its life right now, layoffs are imminent.
See also: fight, life
Farlex Dictionary of Idioms.
be fighting for your life
COMMON
1. If someone is fighting for their life, they are seriously ill or injured and are in danger of dying. A boy aged 15 was fighting for his life last night but two younger children were said to be out of danger. A toddler is fighting for his life after being run over by a boy who was playing in his father's car. Note: You can also talk about a fight for life. Mary won a desperate fight for life but was left paralysed from the waist down.
2. If an organization or country is fighting for its life, it is in danger of failing or being defeated. An ancient Scottish university institution is fighting for its life. Note: You can put an adjective in front of life to show that a person, organization or country is fighting to save a particular thing related to their existence. Sir Nicholas will be fighting for his political life when he appears before the inquiry in a fortnight. What we are seeing is a country fighting for its moral life.
See also: fight, life
Collins COBUILD Idioms Dictionary, 3rd ed.
- be fighting for (one's)/its life
- good as (one's) word
- good as one's word, as
- of word
- be a man/woman of his/her word
- be in cloud-cuckoo land
- (there's) no saying
- (there's) no telling
- (there's) no knowing
- chow hound