hell or high water
English edit
Pronunciation edit
Audio (AU) (file)
Noun edit
- (idiomatic) Highly adverse circumstances; acts of God.
- 1998, Charles Rosen, Barney Polan's Game: A Novel of the 1951 College Basketball Scandals, page 11:
- Even though sportswriters are supposed to be impartial, I'm a Brooklyn boyo and Dodger fan through hell or high water, so my beer is Schaefer.
- 1999, Aaron Bernstein, Grounded: Frank Lorenzo and the Destruction of Eastern Airlines, page 44:
- Bankers call this a hell-or-high-water deal because it protects the buyer from the directors and offers from other bidders.
- 2002, John Foster West, Time Was, page 230:
- Corn had to be hoed three times and plowed five in spite of hell or high water
Interjection edit
- No matter what the adverse circumstances.
- 1987, James A. Michener, Texas, page 1040:
- I am a man of my word, hell or high water.
Adverb edit
hell or high water (not comparable)
- No matter what the adverse circumstances.
- 1992, Barbara Michaels, Vanish With the Rose, page 195:
- "The barn goes down tomorrow, rain or shine, hell or high water, with your cooperation or without it."