tooth and tong
English edit
Etymology edit
Blend of tooth and nail + hammer and tongs
Adverb edit
tooth and tong (comparative more tooth and tong, superlative most tooth and tong)
- Presenting a vigorous and unified opposition.
- 1957, United States. Congress. Senate. Committee on Agriculture and Forestry, Agricultural Situation and Farm Programs:
- In 1935, I think it was, when a number of Senators and Congressmen introduced grain alcohol bills similar to the one Senator Mundt and I have introduced—but we are told those bills were fought tooth and tong by the oil interests, hence never became law.
- 1973, Denis Brian, Murderers and Other Friendly People:
- Mrs. Meier, wife of the under sheriff at the jail, turned against me. And Duane West is one of my bitterest enemies. And they were sort of working tooth and tong.
- 1991, Richard Herman, Firebreak, page 71:
- The old guard is fighting his economic reforms tooth and tong.