I.verbCOLLOCATIONS FROM OTHER ENTRIES
a bitter fight/struggle
▪ The law was passed after a bitter fight that lasted nearly a decade.
a desperate struggle/battle/fight
▪ The climbers faced a desperate struggle to reach safety.
a fighting chance (=a small but real chance)
▪ The Republican Party has a fighting chance at the next election.
be fighting for your life (=be so ill or injured that you might die)
▪ One badly burned man was fighting for his life in hospital.
beat off/fight off competition
▪ She beat off competition from dozens of other candidates to get the job.
cock fight
combat/fight unemployment
▪ The government's first priority is to combat unemployment.
extreme fighting
fight a battle (also wage a battleformal)
▪ The police are fighting a tough battle against crime.
▪ Many areas around here are waging a constant battle against vandalism.
fight a blaze
▪ Nearly 80 firefighters fought the blaze for three hours on Sunday.
fight (a) disease (=try to stop it continuing)
▪ Some bacteria help the human body fight disease.
fight a fire (=try to make a fire stop burning)
▪ Further attempts to fight the fire were abandoned.
fight a war
▪ The two countries fought a brief war in 1995.
fight an electionBritish English (also contest an election British Englishformal) (= take part in it and try to win)
▪ Three independent candidates are also planning to contest the election.
fight for a cause (=take action to achieve an aim)
▪ Young people often want to fight for a cause.
fight for compensation (=try hard to get it)
▪ Alan, who hurt his back and hasn't worked since, is still fighting for compensation.
fight for equality
▪ Women fought for equality throughout the twentieth century.
fight in a war (=take part as a soldier)
▪ Her grandfather fought in the war.
fight the flab (=lose weight)
▪ simple advice to help you fight the flab
fight/choke/blink back tears (=try not to cry)
▪ She fought back tears yesterday as she re-lived the horrors she had seen.
fight/combat an infection
▪ A new drug is being developed to combat the infection.
fight/combat evil
▪ Joan swore to fight evil in all its forms.
fight/combat inflation
▪ An economic plan to combat inflation was drawn up.
fight/combat poverty (=take action to get rid of poverty)
▪ The money should be spent on fighting poverty.
fight/combat terrorism
▪ We will provide the necessary resources to combat terrorism.
fight/combat/tackle crime
▪ There are a number of ways in which the public can help the police to fight crime.
fight/gasp for air (=try to breathe with difficulty)
▪ He clutched his throat as he fought for air.
fighting fitBritish English (= very fit)
▪ I had just come back from holiday and was fighting fit.
fight/struggle for survival
▪ Many construction companies are fighting for survival.
fight/tackle corruption (=try to stop it)
▪ He criticized the government for failing to fight corruption in high places.
fire fight
fire fighting
fist fight
gasp/fight for breath (=have difficulty breathing)
▪ He was lying on the floor gasping for breath.
had...snowball fight
▪ We had a massive snowball fight.
hand-to-hand fighting/combat etc
▪ There was fierce hand-to-hand fighting in the streets of the city.
▪ They were defeated in hand-to-hand combat.
Heavy fighting
▪ Heavy fighting was reported near the border.
prepare yourself for a race/fight etc
▪ The Chicago Bears are busy preparing themselves for the big game.
resist/fight/suppress an urge
▪ She had to resist a constant urge to look back over her shoulder.
sb’s fight/struggle/battle for survival
▪ Their lives had been one long struggle for survival.
start a fight/argument
▪ Oh, don’t go trying to start an argument.
the fight/war against terrorism
▪ ideas on how the international community can further the war against terrorism
the struggle/fight for equality
▪ the people who led the struggle for equality in the United States
the struggle/fight for freedom
▪ The student movement played an important role in the struggle for political freedom.
ultimate fighting
violence/fighting spreads
▪ There is no indication that the violence is likely to spread.
COLLOCATIONS FROM CORPUS
■ ADVERB
back
▪ Playing an unusual opening variation, Yusupov secured some advantage, but with accurate play Karpov fought back.
▪ To fight back, PacBell has challenged the fairness of the bid process.
▪ They fought back as the enemy continued to bomb hangars and parked aircraft.
▪ But the business is fighting back, revamping betting shops, simplifying the pools coupons and advertising better odds.
▪ The parasites can fight back, with a range of eggs that mimic those of their chosen host.
▪ So you fight back the anxiety.
▪ Another 10 years down the track, though, and the magpies started to fight back.
▪ While she lay waiting, Elinor fought back the fears underscored by the hospital bed and the smell of antiseptic.
hard
▪ Belfast was one which fought hard and played great football.
▪ For years we fought hard against the police attitude not to treat this as a crime.
▪ I hoped to keep one of them alive for questioning, but they fought hard.
▪ The president fought hard for the plan, and saw it through Congress by mid-March.
▪ Cnut's men had fought hard, and doubtless expected to be remunerated accordingly.
▪ I fought hard for the right to be right.
▪ She fought hard to get him a part-time playgroup place in the group his older brother attended.
▪ She was fighting hard not to be unpleasant.
off
▪ There crawled into my mind one nasty little question that I'd been fighting off till now.
▪ But Nicole fought off his advances.
▪ Claridges and the Savoy had to fight off take-over bids with borrowed money.
▪ The athlete then fights off enemies with sword and pistol.
▪ Terry managed to fight off the man; if he hadn't, he reckons he wouldn't be alive today.
▪ We gasped for breath and fought off the pain, desperate not to lose.
▪ But others have been forced to take on heavy debts to fight off hostile bids.
▪ You also lose your ability to fight off diseases of various kinds.
on
▪ However, if the tooth is knocked out completely, little additional damage can be done by fighting on.
▪ We fought on through most of the night, and when first dawn broke, we were still fully engaged.
▪ This is a good quality in that we will fight on despite terrible injuries, Sir.
▪ Some lawmakers want to repeal that measure and order the Fed to focus solely on fighting inflation.
▪ She was also mistaken in declaring her intention to fight on immediately the result of the first ballot was known.
▪ On the evening of 20 November the Prime Minister's swift decision to fight on plunged the Conservatives into almost total disarray.
▪ Nor is it clear how many ministers urged her to fight on - though at least two did.
■ NOUN
battle
▪ Muriel was disinclined to know what battle had been fought, on what ground, and how badly Lily had been hurt.
▪ Just another hill where they fought another battle.
▪ There were always new battles to fight, new obstacles to uproot, new heresies to stamp out.
▪ A major battle must be fought to get rid of it.
▪ On the forward slopes of this mountain, towards Monfalcone, terrible and bloody battles had been fought.
▪ With fewer material battles to fight, character, values and faith seem to have filled the vacuum.
▪ It recalls the unsuccessful battles fought in the early 1970s to prevent the limestone-quarrying operation that made the scar.
breath
▪ I will fight to my last breath.
▪ I wad tired of fighting for breath.
▪ The illness causes the sufferer to fight for every breath when they're having an attack.
▪ His face was set in a painful rictus, his chest heaving as he fought for breath.
▪ Half way up she paused, fighting for breath, suddenly struck by the enormity of what she was doing.
▪ Agnes leaned against the castle wall, which was streaming with water, and fought for breath.
▪ None of the usual muck one finds in the lungs when a man's fighting for his breath.
▪ Theda held her while she fought for breath, taking in great gasps of air.
campaign
▪ Mr Major, they said, had fought an appalling campaign and Mr Kinnock a superb one.
▪ He fought the 1987 election campaign.
▪ Labour in 1983 under Michael Foot fought a disastrous campaign.
▪ Nellist has fought an aggressive campaign on his Parliamentary record and flooded the area with leaflets - 20,000 distributed yesterday alone.
▪ Mr Kinnock fought a good campaign.
▪ Her father, Ron Smith fought a long campaign for the investigation to be heard in this country.
▪ Residents have fought a long campaign to stop some motorists using the roads as a race track.
▪ Rather they fight guerrilla campaigns, as befits their savagery, which are extremely difficult to subdue.
corner
▪ He had nobody back in Langley who would be willing to fight his corner.
▪ Jen fought her corner fiercely but Helen knew that she was winning.
▪ But each is fighting its national corner too.
▪ She always said he should have stayed to fight his corner.
▪ Sara Keays has continued to fight her corner.
death
▪ While not explicit, many implied that they would indeed fight to the death for their managing director.
▪ They say we massacred him, but he would have massacred us had we not defended ourselves and fought to the death.
▪ But death can only be fought with death, and life with life, he wrote.
▪ No, she fights her to the death, which from the point of view of the species is unhelpful.
▪ If the adventurers pursue the Harpies back to their lair, they will fight to the death to defend it.
▪ I fling them from my bed and in that moment resolve to fight back, vowing death to another species.
▪ He fights almost to the death rather than succumb.
▪ High Road has tackled all kinds of issues from pit bull terrier fighting to cot death in order to illuminate character.
election
▪ He fought the 1987 election campaign.
▪ The Conservative and Unionist party will fight the next general election as the party of the Union.
▪ Is not that a terrible record on which to fight a general election, in which the Government will be defeated?
▪ Twenty parties are registered to fight the election and some of the smaller ones are making a respectable showing.
▪ There was a time when the provisionals sought to ride both horses simultaneously, fighting elections and plotting murder.
▪ He unsuccessfully fought the next three elections.
▪ It seems important, therefore, to try to establish how the decision to fight the election came about.
fire
▪ Every member of the warehouse staff should be trained in the use of various portable fire fighting appliances installed within the premises.
▪ Then they would close up, go forward, receive the withering infantry fire, and fight as best they could.
▪ They make sure fire instructions are clearly displayed and that fire fighting equipment is in its correct place.
▪ The Lone fire is being fought with a lot more than just water.
▪ Height and restricted access are the most significant factors of the fire fighting problem.
▪ They are the victims of auto accidents, industrial accidents, falls from cliffs, fires, fights, stabbings, shootings.
▪ How could it be otherwise? Fire must fight fire, must it not?
▪ Well briefed guards with fire fighting appliances should be placed in the vicinity.
life
▪ As a result of this, the Bristol Centre is fighting for its life.
▪ She was fighting for her life with her entire body, kicking and biting and cursing.
▪ Medical campaigners say they're fighting for quality of life.
▪ I realized I was fighting for my life and defended myself.
▪ Mr Major and his Chancellor Norman Lamont were fighting for their political lives last night in the greatest crisis they have faced.
▪ Dole is a man who has fought his entire life to protect and advance his core beliefs.
▪ One day we may meet that villain, or the many like him, and have to fight for our very lives.
▪ But less than 6 months ago, she was fighting for her life.
man
▪ Many of the men who had actually fought got nothing.
▪ The Gulf War was a disaster for men and women fighting together on the same battlefield, he maintained.
▪ This man may have fought at Flodden but he is not King James.
▪ The dyed hair and dyed moustache are no longer Signs of a man wishing to fight the odds.
▪ The classic example of this is the girl who sets two men fighting for her.
▪ He was one against four - and already wounded - and yet he stood there deliberately inciting the men to fight.
▪ I prefer to believe that men who fought for the United States understand what they fought for and what others died for.
survival
▪ Now they are fighting for survival.
▪ Two years ago, he arrived battered, beaten and fighting for survival in the face of Republican victories in 1994.
▪ For two years Vlasov was limited to the depressing task of fighting for the very survival of his movement.
▪ This argument is that the inverse relationship is a result of desperate families fighting for survival from too small pieces of land.
▪ Mr Milosevic is fighting for his political survival after a vicious campaign tainted by intimidation and haunted by fears of electoral fraud.
▪ Time allowed 00:22 Read in studio Five puppies are fighting for survival after being left to die in a rubbish sack.
▪ Not even the farmers-right now fighting for their very survival-have escaped the scourge of the climate change levy.
▪ On the contrary, they saw their San Francisco elderly as fighting for survival and self-esteem through a remarkable variety of strategies.
tear
▪ It was still tender from the soldier's abuse, but the pain helped her fight back incipient tears.
▪ I find myself fighting back tears as I thank them for coming.
▪ Desperately she fought back the tears, not knowing why they had formed so swiftly.
▪ Shareef Abdur-Rahim fought back tears throughout his statement and parts of the question-and-answer period that followed.
▪ Breathing deeply, fighting sudden fresh tears, she stared at the whitewashed walls of the tiny, tidy yard.
▪ In fact, the chance to show Neely fighting back tears probably became an excuse to return to the topic.
▪ None of it registered, because she was fighting tears that were perilously near.
war
▪ For me the mystery of the enemy's identity had been increased by the peculiar sort of war I had fought.
▪ The Art Deco war fought with tanks and Rolls-Royces is another plus.
▪ Those camps weren't military targets, they didn't affect the way the war was being fought.
▪ The best way to fight against the threat of nuclear war is to fight for socialism through class-struggle means.
▪ The war for independence was fought on several fronts.
▪ His brother Menelaus was the husband of Helen, for whose sake the Trojan War was fought.
▪ At that point there will be a different air war to fight, for which crews must be kept fresh.
▪ The Civil War had been fought in the main in the borderlands, precisely where the national question was at its most urgent.
way
▪ Von Schönberg had had no need to fight his way up the ranks.
▪ Bar girls were screaming, and trying to fight their way past us.
▪ Then he had to fight his way out of her pages.
▪ At the very least, they could organize to fight the oppressive way in which science gets done.
▪ We will swim through seas of blood, fight our way through lakes of fire, if we are ordered.
▪ Bowman glanced back only once at Whitehead, as he fought his way out of the cubicle.
▪ After fighting his way through all this, he would have to face an angry and almost certainly stark-naked Quigley.
▪ Meanwhile, the master had sprung from his position backstage and was fighting his way toward me.
PHRASES FROM OTHER ENTRIES
a fight to the finish
▪ It will be a fight to the finish.
▪ Six teams are bitter rivals in what will be a fight to the finish.
fight a rearguard action
▪ A rearguard action is being fought against the sale of the land for business development.
▪ With their captain and inspiration, Roy Aitken, suspended, Saints seemed to have come prepared to fight a rearguard action.
fight tooth and nail
▪ We had to fight tooth and nail to get the government to admit they were wrong.
▪ He fought tooth and nail for 15 months before going to sleep one final night last week.
▪ He would also fight tooth and nail to keep her from the likes of Tommy Allen.
▪ Legislation aimed at forcing the power firms to clean up their act is being fought tooth and nail by the polluters.
▪ They fought tooth and nail through an initial series of leagues and finished in seven knockout matches.
▪ They fought tooth and nail to protect the solicitors' monopoly of conveyancing but eventually compromised by not objecting to licensed conveyancers.
fight your corner/fight sb's corner
fight your own battles
▪ She has a talent for playing modern women who must find the inner strength to fight their own battles.
▪ Surely it is better for the townsfolk themselves to develop the necessary skills to fight their own battles?
▪ We invaded Ireland and fought our own battles there.
grudge fight/match
▪ None of the combatants in this grunge grudge match are over 20.
▪ Six other players were sin-binned as Britain beat New Zealand 3-2 in a grudge match.
have no stomach for a fight/task etc
▪ They proved to have no stomach for a fight with only Steve Regeling showing any semblance of spirit.
pillow fight
▪ Is it like a pillow fight with rock-hard chestnuts?
run/hurt/fight etc like hell
▪ I know he lost his legs first, and then his fingers-he died alone and it hurt like hell.
▪ I remember running like hell, knowing I was being pursued and looking back for Sarah, who didn't join me.
▪ I was able to breathe only with the utmost difficulty, and my arm hurt like hell.
▪ Must have fought like hell to find its niche within the forest, to distinguish itself within the pack.
▪ My forehead hurt like hell and my body was bruised all over, but no bones were broken.
▪ Run, North, run; just run like hell.
▪ Spring sauntered north, but he had to run like hell to keep it as his traveling companion.
▪ We fought like hell for most of the time.
three-cornered contest/fight
▪ Third, after a terrific three-cornered fight, were David Hoskins and David James.
EXAMPLES FROM OTHER ENTRIES
▪ Amnesty is an organization that fights against torture and injustice.
▪ As kids, we fought about everything, but now we're pretty good friends.
▪ Billy had been fighting with some kids from another school.
▪ Civil rights groups have vowed to fight the changes.
▪ Freedom of speech is something well worth fighting for.
▪ He said he'd fight anyone who tried to stop him entering.
▪ His grandfather fought on the Republican side in the Spanish Civil War.
▪ If you two don't stop fighting about what to watch I'm going to send you to your room.
▪ If you want the job, you'll have to fight for it.
▪ Kerry's parents are always fighting -- I'm not surprised she left home.
▪ Mandela fought to abolish white-only rule in South Africa.
▪ McCallum and Toney fought to a draw.
▪ Most of these young soldiers don't even know what they're fighting for.
▪ My grandfather fought in World War II.
▪ My mother and my grandmother fight all the time.
▪ Neil Phillips will now fight Adams for leadership of the party.
▪ Pancho Villa fought a battle near here.
▪ The Boers were fighting the British at this time.
▪ The children fought and pushed in line.
▪ The Prime Minister has decided to stay on to fight another election.
EXAMPLES FROM CORPUS
▪ Adult gangs did fight, but not with innocent people or bystanders.
▪ As no man can serve two masters we had long been told no wise general tries to fight on two fronts.
▪ Burke, for one, is committed to fighting this social dis-ease.
▪ Conversely, if middle-class parents stay, if they stay and fight, they can turn things around.
▪ For a few minutes we fought wildly.
▪ He has even fought skeleton warriors with Jason and the Argonauts.
▪ I argued, I fought, but he wanted to believe that happiness was impossible; it gave him some strange consolation.
▪ Our fathers, our grandfathers fought for that.
II.nounCOLLOCATIONS FROM CORPUS
■ ADJECTIVE
big
▪ Then there was a big fight and she said I mustn't use them ever again.
▪ The Conservatives are putting up a big fight.
▪ The next morning they had their first big fight.
▪ Sometimes, however, notably during a General Election or a big fight, total inaccuracy is publicly punished.
▪ We had a big fight about a box of crackers.
▪ And with big fight tickets to sell, Frank isn't going to stand about silently while Lennox knocks his fight.
▪ Putting up the biggest fight is Gen.
bitter
▪ Passage of the 1994 law came after a bitter fight that lasted nearly a decade.
▪ The United States will continue to furnish you and your people with the fullest measure of support in this bitter fight.
good
▪ They likes a good fight in Bristol.
▪ I really like having a good fight with my wife, mornings when I have to go to work.
▪ I won't leave my kids without a bloody good fight.
▪ But our daughters and our sons may not see the fight we fought as the good fight.
▪ But assuming for the moment that we can do better than fight over the trough, how do we do it?
▪ These days he still carries on the good fight, primarily through his poignant, unadorned music.
▪ With the can and the bottle he fought the good fight, and kept himself from himself again.
▪ We had one good fight about Denver.
hard
▪ It was a long hard fight, but by now it was dark and this helped us very much.
▪ There was a long, hard fight, but when it finished, we and the ship were prisoners.
▪ You have learnt a lesson, fought a hard fight and are now ready to receive a valuable reward.
▪ It's undoubtedly the hardest fight Frank has had since his comeback.
▪ But the Tories are putting up a hard fight.
long
▪ That was the other thing, it took me a long fight to get my eye drops.
▪ Why do the hockey players skate around for so long between fights?
▪ It was a long hard fight, but by now it was dark and this helped us very much.
▪ Mancini, who died in 1994 after a long fight with cancer, is undergoing something of a rebirth.
▪ Naked heel's a long fight.
▪ After a long fight, the mystery monster turned out to be a 57-inch sturgeon that weighed 46 pounds.
▪ There was a long, hard fight, but when it finished, we and the ship were prisoners.
▪ After a long fight to beat inflation, the government does not feel sympathetic to these demands.
real
▪ Armed only with flesh-rending knives and magic Shurikens, the droids have a real fight on their hands.
▪ But the real fight was brewing in Washington.
▪ For the first time, Shirnette and me had a real fight, because of what I hated most.
▪ Each time Ted hit, he stepped back with his fists knotted, waiting for a real fight.
▪ The playgoers of London knew a real fight when they saw one.
▪ They can now afford to have a real bloody fight on that.
▪ The kid comes out hard, apparently wanting to make it a real fight.
▪ It wasn't a real fight and the blood wasn't real.
tough
▪ But it's being treated that way and a tough fight is promised.
▪ Harry Reid, face a tough fight on the Senate floor.
▪ Now he is facing his toughest fight yet - back to fitness after suffering a fractured fibula and damaged ankle ligaments.
▪ If champions are gauged by their ability to win tough fights, Marco Antonio Barrera has quite a future.
▪ Anyway, Unix now faces a much tougher fight for survival against Microsoft Corp - or are we imagining things?
▪ It was a very tough fight.
▪ Both the defenders and opponents of the Constitution girded for a tough fight.
■ NOUN
fist
▪ The rally broke up in fist fights and violence, and the whole thing spread on to the streets.
▪ Can you imagine knowing, and liking, a man who engages in fist fights?
▪ They can not get away from the characters as they have fist fights or shoot up.
▪ A fist fight followed, with much shouting and squabbling, until the ragged man succeeded in driving up to the door.
▪ While there, for whatever reason, he engaged himself in a fist fight with a man asking for money.
▪ One third said they had gotten into fist fights.
▪ Challenge them to a good old-fashioned fist fight?
▪ There was generally a fist fight in Hard Class after lunch, and Vassily provoked quarrels at every meal.
street
▪ John Candotti had once waded into a street fight simply because he thought the odds were too lopsided.
▪ Mob assaults upon blacks and street fights continued.
▪ Read in studio A murder suspect has told a court that he accidentally stabbed a teenager to death during a street fight.
▪ Two hundred and fifty stitches for street fight victim Prostite murder.
▪ Even before the last Albert Hall rally, Joyce and Mosley had joined the street fight.
title
▪ Why, they asked, should these associations collect such large fees for sanctioning a title fight?
▪ Sugar Ray Leonard won his world middle-weight title fight with Roberto Duran.
▪ The parade of the athletes to these press conferences was like the opening of a Marvin Hagler title fight.
▪ When he collapsed with brain damage during the world super-middleweight title fight he could so easily have died.
■ VERB
join
▪ Armoured figures drew their swords and shouted incoherently, joining the fight to the rear.
▪ I suppose they expected me to stop and join the fight.
▪ Police have renewed their appeal to the public to join the fight against horse attacks by reporting anything suspicious.
▪ I have to join the fight.
▪ The thought came to him in an instant as he stood, hesitating over whether to join the fight.
▪ Between ten and twenty other youths, said to be between eighteen and twenty years old, joined the fight.
▪ Read in studio Staff at one of the country's oldest breweries have joined the fight to keep it independent.
▪ His followers closed in, looking for an opening to join the fight and pin Bigwig down.
lose
▪ Read in studio A man severely brain damaged in an operation more than twenty-five years ago, has lost his fight for compensation.
▪ By and large, it was a losing and demoralizing fight.
▪ Gusinsky could lose everything in a fight with Putin.
▪ He usually lost his fights, but after he understood his nose, he never again bled to the vomit point.
▪ They lost their fight to prevent the war, but never their desire for peace.
▪ He may be losing in the fight for delegates.
▪ And there ... There, James ... There, my son, I lost the fight.
▪ At home and abroad, Mr Gorbachev has an awful lot to lose from a fight.
pick
▪ We adults do the same: we come home from work and start complaining or picking a fight.
▪ Had never picked a fight in his life.
▪ Barton Lynch's manager had once picked a fight with him.
▪ From a lack of communication, parents are more likely to misunderstand, blame, or pick fights with one another.
▪ Anthony Ryan was known in his family as able to pick a fight with his own fingernails.
▪ The first thing Vicious does is start picking fights with these guys who are supposed to protect him.
▪ You pick your side and fight for it.
▪ He loved to pick arguments and fights.
spoil
▪ It seemed to him that Vincent came home spoiling for a fight.
▪ She is an egocentric, angry, combative woman spoiling for a fight.
▪ Be that as it may, Cooper was spoiling for a fight, as this unpublished letter shows.
start
▪ They are more likely to start fights with other children, kill and be cruel to animals and have behaviour problems.
▪ I started learning on my own, and we started getting into fights about things.
▪ He'd never started a fight in his life.
▪ One Saturday a couple of young punks decided to start a fight with my father.
▪ No one in his right mind would want to start a fight in such a place as this.
▪ Somebody else might have started a fight or caused a commotion.
▪ They would pretend to get pissed and start a fight.
▪ He can even start a fight to draw us into a trap.
win
▪ The deal, which is worth almost seventeen million pounds, depends on Morland winning its fight for survival.
▪ If champions are gauged by their ability to win tough fights, Marco Antonio Barrera has quite a future.
▪ Badger victory Wildlife campaigners are celebrating after winning an 18 year fight to protect badgers from badger baiting.
▪ Emile won maybe 20 title fights after that.
▪ So who wins the fight for the remote?
▪ Regardless, he did not win that fight.
▪ Successive personnel managers had always caved in to his demands as they knew full well that Clasper would win a stand-up fight.
▪ They won the field position fight by a huge margin.
PHRASES FROM OTHER ENTRIES
a fight to the finish
▪ It will be a fight to the finish.
▪ Six teams are bitter rivals in what will be a fight to the finish.
be spoiling for a fight/argument
▪ Be that as it may, Cooper was spoiling for a fight, as this unpublished letter shows.
fight tooth and nail
▪ We had to fight tooth and nail to get the government to admit they were wrong.
▪ He fought tooth and nail for 15 months before going to sleep one final night last week.
▪ He would also fight tooth and nail to keep her from the likes of Tommy Allen.
▪ Legislation aimed at forcing the power firms to clean up their act is being fought tooth and nail by the polluters.
▪ They fought tooth and nail through an initial series of leagues and finished in seven knockout matches.
▪ They fought tooth and nail to protect the solicitors' monopoly of conveyancing but eventually compromised by not objecting to licensed conveyancers.
fight your corner/fight sb's corner
fight your own battles
▪ She has a talent for playing modern women who must find the inner strength to fight their own battles.
▪ Surely it is better for the townsfolk themselves to develop the necessary skills to fight their own battles?
▪ We invaded Ireland and fought our own battles there.
grudge fight/match
▪ None of the combatants in this grunge grudge match are over 20.
▪ Six other players were sin-binned as Britain beat New Zealand 3-2 in a grudge match.
have no stomach for a fight/task etc
▪ They proved to have no stomach for a fight with only Steve Regeling showing any semblance of spirit.
live to see/fight another day
▪ A conciliatory gesture, some argued, would appease the cardinal and Holy Trinity would live to fight another day.
▪ By his diplomacy, it was true, Gordon had lived to fight another day.
▪ Having lived to fight another day, Mayer did - with Sam Goldwyn.
▪ Or will they live to fight another day?
▪ Pol pot lives to fight another day despite butchering millions of his people.
▪ The choice for us was whether to take a strike unprepared or to live to fight another day.
pick a quarrel/fight (with sb)
▪ Anthony Ryan was known in his family as able to pick a fight with his own fingernails.
▪ Barton Lynch's manager had once picked a fight with him.
▪ But it is hard to pick a quarrel with pasta.
▪ From a lack of communication, parents are more likely to misunderstand, blame, or pick fights with one another.
▪ Had never picked a fight in his life.
▪ His favorite thing is to pick fights with me and then leave brown lunch bags on our doorstep.
▪ The first thing Vicious does is start picking fights with these guys who are supposed to protect him.
▪ We adults do the same: we come home from work and start complaining or picking a fight.
pillow fight
▪ Is it like a pillow fight with rock-hard chestnuts?
put up a fight/struggle/resistance
▪ By then I realized it was all too late anyway so I didn't put up a fight.
▪ Had he, perhaps, put up a fight?
▪ I bet you did that last night. - Did she put up a fight, then?
▪ I start running, but my body puts up a fight.
▪ Instead of dragging everything into the open and putting up a fight, I held on in silence.
▪ Not only relieved by beating Dallas, but yes, this team can put up a fight.
▪ The temptation was great to muster what force we could and put up a fight.
run/hurt/fight etc like hell
▪ I know he lost his legs first, and then his fingers-he died alone and it hurt like hell.
▪ I remember running like hell, knowing I was being pursued and looking back for Sarah, who didn't join me.
▪ I was able to breathe only with the utmost difficulty, and my arm hurt like hell.
▪ Must have fought like hell to find its niche within the forest, to distinguish itself within the pack.
▪ My forehead hurt like hell and my body was bruised all over, but no bones were broken.
▪ Run, North, run; just run like hell.
▪ Spring sauntered north, but he had to run like hell to keep it as his traveling companion.
▪ We fought like hell for most of the time.
three-cornered contest/fight
▪ Third, after a terrific three-cornered fight, were David Hoskins and David James.
throw a match/game/fight
▪ This year, he is throwing a game party at his home in Austin.
EXAMPLES FROM OTHER ENTRIES
▪ A couple of fights broke out near the stadium after the game.
▪ A good fight once in a while can clear the air.
▪ Are you going to watch the big fight tomorrow?
▪ He had been at the pub for several hours before getting into a fight with another man.
▪ He knocked out his opponent only five minutes into the fight.
▪ He was a hero in the fight for independence from France.
▪ How did you get that black eye? Were you in a fight?
▪ New laws have been passed to help the police in their fight against organized crime.
▪ The fight against malnutrition and preventable diseases must continue.
▪ the fight between Joe Louis and Rocky Marciano
▪ There was a massive fight after school yesterday.
▪ Three of his ribs were broken in a fight.
▪ Tyson's fight against Evander Holyfield
▪ Women's fight for equality has not ended.
EXAMPLES FROM CORPUS
▪ But Eliades is demanding that pot, plus Lewis' fight fee of around £5m, is frozen by a court judge.
▪ I went through with the fight, like I had said, knocked him out.
▪ If we had a fight I know I'd win, easy-peasy.
▪ It is considered one of the most significant developments in the fight against many brain disorders and diseases.
▪ Northener Warren Goss takes up: Night came, yet the fight went on....
▪ So anyway, so how did somebody almost get into a fight besides him and Jessica?
▪ That was the other thing, it took me a long fight to get my eye drops.