sell one's life dearly

Proposed by a contributor, not yet supported by evidence.

Meaning · English

To fight very hard and make great sacrifices in defense of something

Nghĩa · Tiếng Việt

Đấu tranh rất mạnh và hy sinh lớn để bảo vệ một thứ gì đó

Machine-translated — suggest a fix

Literally: to sell one's life at a high price
Where it’s used: Used Widespread English

Examples

The soldier vowed to sell his life dearly in battle

AI-drafted example auto-approved by rule (illustrative, not a corpus attestation)

Sources & notes

Listed in Wiktionary’s “English idioms” category (retrieved 2026-07-29); definition pending editorial review. Definition drafted by AI (@cf/meta/llama-3.3-70b-instruct-fp8-fast) and auto-approved by rule on 2026-07-31; pending editor spot-check.

Common questions

What does “sell one's life dearly” mean?

To fight very hard and make great sacrifices in defense of something Literally: to sell one's life at a high price

Is “sell one's life dearly” formal or informal?

No register label has been reviewed yet — treat it as neutral and check the usage notes above.