mortal combat

noun

: a fight that will result in the death of the loser : a fight to the death

two gladiators locked in mortal combat

Examples of mortal combat in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

Toward the end of the film, Harvey adds a half-dozen passengers, silent witnesses to their mortal combat. —J. Hoberman, New York Times, 12 Feb. 2025

One fossil assemblage from the Yixian Formation preserved the remains of these species in mortal combat, frozen in mid-action. —Paul Smaglik, Discover Magazine, 5 Nov. 2024

On the whole, chimps are significantly more violent as a group than bonobos, with bands of males engaging in sometimes mortal combat with other bands over access to food, territory, and females. —Jeffrey Kluger, TIME, 5 June 2024

Our paradigms need to shift in order to see that, like communities, ecosystems are not arenas of mortal combat but rather networks that create space for all. —Lorraine Berry, Los Angeles Times, 14 Aug. 2023

The scientists suspect they were suddenly engulfed in a volcanic mudflow and buried alive during mortal combat. —Reuters, NBC News, 19 July 2023

Uniform constructs the fighting man for mortal combat. —Hazlitt, 12 May 2022