at daggers drawn
In real, traceable use. Part of the curated seed collection; community review is coming.
Meaning · English
In a state of bitter enmity.
Where it’s used:
Used
Widespread English
Examples
In practice they are at daggers drawn as the furore over Tom Clarke's pronouncements on the subject this week amply illustrates.
Mr MacSharry and Commission President Jacques Delors have been at daggers drawn for weeks over tactics in the GATT talks with the Americans with Mr Delors accused of favouring the powerful French farm lobby.
British National Corpus sentence via the MAGPIE corpus (CC BY 4.0, retrieved 2026-07-30)
Sources & notes
Listed in Wiktionary’s “English idioms” category (retrieved 2026-07-29); definition pending editorial review. Figurative class: Metaphor (PIE-English corpus, CC BY 4.0, retrieved 2026-07-31).
Common questions
What does “at daggers drawn” mean?
In a state of bitter enmity.
Is “at daggers drawn” formal or informal?
No register label has been reviewed yet — treat it as neutral and check the usage notes above.