Tooth and nail

Ukraine is the epitome of what it means to fight tooth and nail.
Ukraine is the epitome of what it means to fight tooth and nail.

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Phrase: Tooth and nail

Ukraine is the best example of today’s phrase – tooth and nail.

Everyone thought Ukraine would roll over and be conquered a few days after Russia invaded.

Ukraine proved the world wrong.

They fought and continue to fight tooth and nail to protect and keep their country.


What tooth and nail means is to fight with ferocity and force vigorously. When you fight tooth and nail, you make a strenuous effort.


As I said, Ukraine is the epitome of what it means to fight tooth and nail, and we have to respect them for that.

However, fighting tooth and nail doesn’t mean you always have to be physically engaged in combat.

Each and every day, commuter trains are full of workers, students, retirees and homemakers fighting tooth and nail to improve their lot in life.

As long as you are making a strenuous effort, putting all of your efforts into attaining something or achieving a goal, you are fighting tooth and nail.

Those cute little junior high school students are studying extremely hard to pass high school entrance exams, fighting tooth and nail.

They are fighting their battle to get into their preferred school every bit as furiously as Ukrainian soldiers are fighting to prevent their country from being stolen from them.

Everyone has struggles to overcome in life.

Some fights we choose; others are thrust upon us.

The most important thing is that once we decide to fight, we put all of our efforts into it.

If you fight tooth and nail for what you believe in or want, you should never be ashamed of the result because you did everything you could.  


Flesch-Kincaid Readability Test

This post is understandable by someone with at least an 8th-grade education (age 13 – 14).   

On the Flesch-Kincaid reading-ease test, this post scores 70.   

The easier a passage is to read, the higher the score on a scale of 0 – 100.


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