tooth and nail

See also: tooth-and-nail

English

Alternative forms

• with tooth and nail

Etymology

From the Middle English phrase (with) nayles and teþ (“viciously, ferociously”, literally “(with) nails and teeth”).

Adverb

tooth and nail

1. (figurative) Viciously; with all one's strength or power; without holding back.

   Synonyms: tooth and claw; tooth, fang, and claw

   For a century, the two families fought tooth and nail over control of the land.

   • a. 1884, Charles Reade, 1887, Charles L. Reade, Compton Reade, Charles Reade, Dramatist, Novelist, Journalist: A Memoir Compiled Chiefly from His Literary Remains, Volume 2, page 229:

     "I shall fight tooth and nail for international copyright and stage-right, […] ."

   • 2007, Patrick Bentley, The Birth of a Song‎^[1], page 76:

     At that time, I was young in the Lord, stood firm on what I believed, and I fought tooth and nail for what I thought was right in my mind and with God.

   • 2008, Laura Schenone, The Lost Ravioli Recipes of Hoboken: A Search for Food and Family‎^[2]:

     The women struggle tooth and nail to gain office skills so they don't have to make Jell—O or pencils forever.

   • 2011 Allen Gregory, "Pilot" (season 1, episode 1):

     Jeremy DeLongpre: Yeah, about that Tony nomination. Richard DeLongpre: Yeah, apparently they don't nominate plays that are staged in our living room. Not over, fighting 'em tooth and nail on it.

   • 2012 October 6, “Education: Class Warfare”, in The Economist:

     In a second term Mr Obama’s administration is likely to press ahead with its struggle to hold for-profit colleges more accountable for their results: something the industry is fighting tooth and claw.

   • 2012 November 29, Christine Skwiot, The Purposes of Paradise: U.S. Tourism and Empire in Cuba and Hawai'i‎^[3]:

     We are striving tooth and nail to kill anything remotely suggestive of the hulas of ancient Hawaii.

   • 2023 March 8, Mel Holley, “TSSA accepts offer, but RMT sets new strike dates”, in RAIL, number 978, page 10:

     "Ministers cannot continue to sit on their hands, hoping this dispute will go away. Our members are fully prepared to fight tooth-and-nail for a negotiated settlement," RMT General Secretary Mick Lynch has warned.

Usage notes

• The variant with tooth and nail is attested as early as the 16th century; see for example Arthur Golding, The Psalmes of David and others. With M. John Calvins Commentaries, 1571, “Epistle Dedicatorie”:^[4]

  [They] labour with tooth and nayle too winde their owne trash into credit with all men, and to bring the heavenly doctrine of the Gospel in hatred.

• The variant tooth and claw sometimes appears (though not as an adverb) as the fuller phrase nature, red in tooth and claw, which quotes 1850, Alfred Tennyson, In Memoriam A. H. H. —

  Who trusted God was love indeed

  And love Creation’s final law?

  Tho’ Nature, red in tooth and claw

  With ravine, shriek’d against his creed?

Collocations

• fight tooth and nail
• defend (something) tooth and nail
• try tooth and nail
• oppose (something) tooth and nail
• battle tooth and nail

Translations

viciously

• Catalan: amb dents i ungles (literally “with teeth and nails”)
• Czech: zuby nehty (cs)
• Dutch: met hand en tand (literally “with hand and tooth”)
• Finnish: kynsin hampain (literally “with nails and teeth”)
• French: bec et ongles (fr) (literally “beak and nails”)
• German: mit Händen und Füßen (literally “with hands and feet”)
• Greek: με νύχια και με δόντια (me nýchia kai me dóntia)
• Hungarian: foggal-körömmel
• Italian: con le unghie e con i denti (literally “with nails and teeth”)
• Latvian: ar nagiem un zobiem
• Norwegian: med nebb och klør
• Portuguese: com unhas e dentes (pt) (literally “with nails and teeth”)
• Serbo-Croatian: zubima i noktima
• Spanish: con uñas y dientes (literally “with nails and teeth”), a brazo partido, a capa y espada (es) (literally “with cape and sword”)
• Swedish: med näbbar och klor (sv)