你死我活

nǐsǐ-wǒhuó
idiom #20,566

Meanings

  1. 1 life-or-death struggle
  2. 2 irreconcilable conflict
  3. 3 fighting to the bitter end
  4. 4 do-or-die

Examples

Liǎng gè gōngsī zhǎnkāi le nǐsǐ-wǒhuó de jìngzhēng.
The two companies engaged in a fierce, do-or-die competition.
Zhè chǎng zhànzhēng dǎ de nǐsǐ-wǒhuó.
This war was fought in an all-out, life-or-death manner.

Tips

memory
Literally: 'you die, I live' - a perfectly stark summary of a zero-sum conflict. The idiom captures situations where the two parties genuinely cannot coexist. Picture two rivals: one must fall for the other to survive.

Stroke Order

huó