What is "to die in the last ditch"

Die \Die\, v. i. [imp. & p. p. Died; p. pr. & vb. n. Dying.] [OE. deyen, dien, of Scand. origin; cf. Icel. deyja; akin to Dan. d["o]e, Sw. d["o], Goth. diwan (cf. Goth. afd?jan to harass), OFries. d?ia to kill, OS. doian to die, OHG. touwen, OSlav. daviti to choke, Lith. dovyti to torment. Cf. Dead, Death.]

1. To pass from an animate to a lifeless state; to cease to live; to suffer a total and irreparable loss of action of the vital functions; to become dead; to expire; to perish; -- said of animals and vegetables; often with of, by, with, from, and rarely for, before the cause or occasion of death; as, to die of disease or hardships; to die by fire or the sword; to die with horror at the thought.

   To die by the roadside of grief and hunger.
   --Macaulay.

   She will die from want of care.
   --Tennyson.

2. To suffer death; to lose life.

   In due time Christ died for the ungodly.
   --Rom. v. 6.

3. To perish in any manner; to cease; to become lost or extinct; to be extinguished.

   Letting the secret die within his own breast.
   --Spectator.

   Great deeds can not die.
   --Tennyson.

4. To sink; to faint; to pine; to languish, with weakness, discouragement, love, etc.

   His heart died within, and he became as a stone.
   --1 Sam. xxv. 37.

   The young men acknowledged, in love letters, that they died for Rebecca.
   --Tatler.

5. To become indifferent; to cease to be subject; as, to die to pleasure or to sin.

6. To recede and grow fainter; to become imperceptible; to vanish; -- often with out or away.

   Blemishes may die away and disappear amidst the brightness.
   --Spectator.

7. (Arch.) To disappear gradually in another surface, as where moldings are lost in a sloped or curved face.

8. To become vapid, flat, or spiritless, as liquor.

   To die in the last ditch, to fight till death; to die rather than surrender.

   ``There is one certain way,'' replied the Prince [William of Orange] `` by which I can be sure never to see my country's ruin, -- I will die in the last ditch.''
   --Hume (Hist. of Eng. ).

   To die out, to cease gradually; as, the prejudice has died out.

   Syn: To expire; decease; perish; depart; vanish.