for dear life

Also, for one's life. Desperately, urgently, so as to save one's life. For example, When the boat capsized, I hung on for dear life, or With the dogs chasing them they ran for their lives, or She wanted that vase but I saw it first and hung on to it for dear life. These expressions are sometimes hyperbolic (that is, one's life may not actually be in danger). The first dates from the mid-1800s, the variant from the first half of the 1600s. Also see for the life of one.

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Example Sentences

Examples have not been reviewed.

Stock market investors have shown every sign of hanging on for dear life as the on-again-off-again tariffs have unfolded.

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Throughout the film and its many skirmishes, Marvin clutches that award to him for dear life, like a cat with a kicker toy.

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The reckoning that needed to happen by the media in its normalizing of this man will now be replaced by the effort to hang on for dear life as the retribution begins.

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A montage of skiers tumbling and toe-gripping a barely raised beam for dear life lent a comical eye to the intricacy of nailing a wolf turn.

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It’s more hang on for dear life, particularly in a final round at a U.S.

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Forde fordless

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