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View synonyms for die-hard

die-hard

or die·hard

[ dahy-hahrd ]

noun

  1. a person who vigorously maintains or defends a seemingly hopeless position, outdated attitude, lost cause, or the like.


adjective

  1. resisting vigorously and stubbornly to the last; stubborn.

die-hard

noun

  1. a person who resists change or who holds onto an untenable position or outdated attitude
  2. modifier obstinately resistant to change


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Derived Forms

  • ˈdie-ˌhardism, noun

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Other Words From

  • die-hardism noun

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Word History and Origins

Origin of die-hard1

First recorded in 1835–45; noun, adj. use of verb phrase die hard

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Idioms and Phrases

Take a long time to cease to exist or be dropped from consideration. For example, Old prejudices die hard , or The more radical parts of this proposal will die hard . This idiom alludes to struggling against physical death. [Late 1700s]

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Example Sentences

There was plenty of talk about that, but then I heard it was put to bed and they came out with A Good Day to Die Hard.

Merlino says she first noticed him on her Facebook feed and quickly became a die-hard Kohrs fan.

Bush, Carney said, could expand the pool of primary voters beyond the die-hard conservatives.

Who knew that, yes, Die Hard was a novel before it was a movie?

Then Nothing Lasts Forever became Die Hard, Leland was renamed John McClane, and you know what happened next.

Whether the cook must die hard, or whether he meant the friend, Chip did not trouble to make plain.

Aye, as sailors say—‘To work hard, live hard, die hard an’ go to hell after all would be hard indeed!

That long fostered and passionately held creed would die hard.

I'll direct you the road, and if you're lucky you'll find a Die-Hard about the village.

We must remember that mendicancy is a very ancient institution in Italy, and that it will die hard, if it ever dies at all.

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Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023

Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.

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