Wiktionary
a. a final attempt before quitting, often desperate
Wikipedia
Last Ditch is a detective novel by Ngaio Marsh; it is the twenty-ninth novel to feature Roderick Alleyn, and was first published in 1977. The plot concerns drug smuggling in the Channel Islands, and features Alleyn's son, Ricky, in a central role.
Category:Roderick Alleyn novels Category:1977 British novels Category:Novels set in the Channel Islands Category:Collins Crime Club books
Usage examples of "last ditch".
They walked half the morning away from the garden city of Qahirah into lands that ceased bearing life across a line so stark that on one side irrigated fields grew green and on the other, beyond the last ditch, lay bare ground.
When you come to Mauritius and you see things in such a last ditch state, everything else becomes unimportant.
It had become increasingly obvious, latterly painfully obvious, that this was one battle that he would never win, that this last ditch stand against his failing nerve could have only one end, that one day his luck would run out.
He is what all of us would like to be, and ninety-nine per cent of us are ready to fight with him to the last ditch.