FOR DEAR LIFE • E-FREE TRANSLATION.COM • Definition of For dear life

Add this Dictionary
to your website!
See more options...

/fɔr dɪr laɪf/ Listen

For dear life

adverb

As though your life was at stake.

See images of 'For dear life'

Etymology of 'For dear life'

Share |

"For dear life" Quotes from Famous Books

... his sthickles an' fins all p'intin' the other way. Whin he takes it, sorr, jist let him run away wid it as far as he likes, but the minit he turns to swallow it, an' says to himself, 'What an illigant breakfast this is, to be sure!' that minit slap the hook into his jaw, an' hould on to him for dear life." ...

— Lippincott's Magazine of Popular Literature and Science, October, 1877, Vol. XX. No. 118 • Various

... all became uneasy for fear hard work was telling on him physically. He used to sit cross-legged on the ground, sewing for dear life and singing Hood's "Song of the Shirt" in a ...

— Tish, The Chronicle of Her Escapades and Excursions • Mary Roberts Rinehart

... took. The bright morning sunlight, wriggling through the foliage overhead, picked out the round face and curly hair of our young hero and showed him in all his pristine glory, frowning a terrible frown, clinging for dear life with one hand and engaged in his customary ...

— Pee-wee Harris • Percy Keese Fitzhugh

... the ice-islands we were crossing were tossed to and fro by the waves so violently that it became almost impossible to stand, much less walk, on their slippery surface; at others, while all were paddling for dear life, a towering berg would sail down in perilous proximity, for its touch would have sunk our skin boat like a stone. Once I thought it was all over, when a floe we were on became detached from the main pack, ...

— From Paris to New York by Land • Harry de Windt

... paddle for dear life now, and don't interrupt the count. Where was I? Ten, eleven, twelve—" and at eighteen there came the crash of the thunder of that lightning flash that had so nearly blinded them. It was as though a thousand great ...

— Winter Adventures of Three Boys • Egerton R. Young

More quotes...