either do or die

• do or die

An ultimatory verbal phrase composed of the words: either, do, or, and die.

either do or die (third-person singular simple present either does or dies, present participle either doing or dying, simple past either did or died, past participle either done or died)

1. (idiomatic) To act with sufficient urgency to result in either immediate success or immediate failure.
   • 1621 (first literary attestation), John Fletcher, The Island Princess act 2.scene 2:

     Emanuel: Bless us, dear Fortune! / Armusia: Let us be worthy of it in our courage, and Fortune must befriend us. Come, all sever; but keep still within sight: when the flame rises let's meet, and either do or die.

The instant phrase, formulated as an "either...or..." statement employing the correlative conjunction either/or, is the original formulation of the expression which would later be truncated to do or die as either a verbal or adjectival phrase, and even later expressed as do-or-die in rendering an adjectival meaning. Though there is nothing inherently preventing such a usage, the phrase containing the correlative conjunction has not often been used adjectivally but has generally been used verbally, that containing the hyphens has generally only been used adjectivally, while the phrase without hyphens or the correlative conjunction is used both ways.