hell or high water

English

Pronunciation

• Audio (AU):

  (file)

Noun

hell or high water

1. (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

hell or high water

1. 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

hell or high water (not comparable)

1. 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."

Related terms

• rain or shine