to the death

to the death

Until one participant is killed. In this part of town, ever fight you get into could end up being to the death, so you'd be wise to watch your step. The encounter will be a battle to the death between the two animals.
See also: death
Farlex Dictionary of Idioms.

to the ˈdeath

until somebody dies or is defeated: There was a fight to the death between two men armed with knives.
See also: death
Farlex Partner Idioms Dictionary

to the death

Until one participant in a fight or struggle has died or been killed.
See also: death
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition.
See also:
  • a word to the wise is enough
  • a word to the wise is sufficient
  • sufficient
  • wise as Solomon
  • (as) wise as Solomon
  • Solomon
  • be art and part of
  • be art and part of (something)
  • ear hustle
  • hustle
References in periodicals archive
Prejean vows to keep working for an end to the death penalty, and that is good news.
And that means we now have a principled opposition to the death penalty.
Apparently who is subject to the death penalty is determined largely by "local culture." We have "Equal Justice Under the Law" emblazoned on the front of the Supreme Court, but that doesn't mean it's a reality.
The experience of a loss due to the death of a loved one is an intensely individualized process.
"When it comes to the death penalty, white lives are considered more valuable than black lives in Maryland," Richard Dieter says of the Death Penalty Information Center.
Thierry de Duve, you addressed how the relationship between painting and photography sparked one of the initial claims to the death of painting.
Shackled in the back of a prison van, he rides to the death chamber five miles down a two-lane road through the green wastes of swamp that surround Angola.
Events such as the delivery, a vehicle accident, fires or common drowning, and diseases passed in utero from an infected mother to her fetus, or infectious diseases(6) might all lead to the death of the child during the same day as the parent, or to a child's death within a delay of days or weeks, incorrectly creating an impression of an effect of orphanhood.
The death rates attributable to bacteremia, endocarditis, or community-acquired pneumonia were assumed to be equal to the death rates found when these infections were coded as a primary diagnosis in SPARCS and 041.11 was used as a secondary diagnosis.
A death penalty case in these three states costs taxpayers an average of $5.28, $3.2 and $2.3 million, respectively, according to the Death Penalty Information Center.
If the court's liberals often ignored precedent in their furious opposition to the death penalty, the conservatives overreacted by turning a blind eye to the details of many capital cases.
Anyone who pays attention to the death penalty can feel it.
The death of Jonathan Pearson's brother-in-law, Mahlon Hosford, often useful comparisons both to the community reaction to William Palmer's passing, and to Pearson's heart-felt response to the death of his own son Henry.
At times, Bush seems insensitive to the plight of the people he is sending to the death chamber.
And during the first few months after the bombing, I was not opposed to the death penalty for Timothy McVeigh," he wrote in Time magazine.