English Dictionary

Definition of “bitter end”

bitter end

Definitions

noun

  1. (nautical) the end of a line, chain, or cable, esp the end secured in the chain locker of a vessel
    1. See to the bitter end

    2. until final defeat or death

Word Origin

C19: in both senses perhaps from bitt

Example Sentences Including 'bitter end'

A complicated mechanism had been set in motion and would trundle on to the bitter end , and he was under the wheels.
Meek, M R D In Remembrance of Rose
And if I turn back, refusing the road in its bitter end , where then shall I go among Elves or Men?
J.R.R. Tolkien THE LORD OF THE RINGS (2004)
At least Glenn Hoddle started with, and then stuck with, wing-backs right to the bitter end.
Sun, News of the World (1999)
Cassidy would `see what can be done in next Parliament... If we cannot succeed legitimately it must be war to the bitter end.
Christy Campbell FENIAN FIRE: The British Government Plot to Assassinate Queen Victoria (2002)
Justice Cox replied: ``I'm proposing to hear this case until the evidence comes to the bitter end.
The Mercury, Sunday Tasmanian (2004)
Like a chess game between two grandmasters, success in this M&A battle will be a matter of seeing it through to the bitter end.
Business Today (1998)
The Heysel disaster, which led to a five-year European ban for English clubs, brought a bitter end to those glory years.
Sun, News of the World (2001)
Which is ironic, because I'm the one who would be at any other party until the bitter end.
Globe and Mail (2003)
`You can trust us to stick to you through thick and thin -- to the bitter end.
J.R.R. Tolkien THE LORD OF THE RINGS (2004)

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