at daggers drawn

English

WOTD – 15 February 2024

Etymology

Probably a reference to people preparing to fight by drawing their daggers from their sheaths. Compare French à couteaux tirés (literally “at daggers drawn”).

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /æt ˌdæɡəz ˈdɹɔːn/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /æt ˌdæɡəɹz ˈdɹɔn/

• Audio (General American):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɔːn
• Hyphenation: at dag‧gers drawn

Prepositional phrase

at daggers drawn

1. (idiomatic, chiefly British) In a state of open hostility. [from 17th c. but rare before 19th c.]

   Synonym: (obsolete) at daggers' points

   • 1667, Francisco de Quevedo Villegas, “The Seventh Vision of Hell Reform’d”, in R[oger] L[’Estrange], transl., The Visions of Dom Francisco de Quevedo Villegas, […], London: […] H[enry] Herringman […], →OCLC, page 263:

     And upon this point, vvere they at Daggers Dravvn vvith the Emperour.

   • 2002, Colin Jones, “Negotiating Stormy Weather: The Regency and the Advent of Fleury (1715–26)”, in The Great Nation: France from Louis XV to Napoleon 1715–99, 1st American edition, New York, N.Y.: Columbia University Press, →ISBN, page 80:

     The new duke of Orléans, son of the Regent, was a callow and shallow youth and worse still—for the house of Condé, collateral with the Bourbons, was perennially at daggers drawn with the rival Orléans dynasty—had just married and already made his wife pregnant.

   • 2011 April 28, Martin Kettle, “Vote yes to AV if you want to see Tories feel the fear again”, in Alan Rusbridger, editor, The Guardian‎^[1], London: Guardian News & Media, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 2022-12-08:

     But [David] Cameron nevertheless feels confident, because he is pretty sure that he has got Labour where he wants it, still off the centre ground on economic credibility and increasingly at daggers drawn with the Liberal Democrats, not least over the pivotal electoral event of this parliament, the AV referendum.

Related terms

• at daggers' drawing, to daggers' drawing (“at or to the point of fighting, quarrelling, or open hostility”) (obsolete)

Translations

in a state of open hostility

• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 勢不兩立／势不两立 (zh) (shìbùliǎnglì) (idiom)

• Finnish: sotajalalla
• French: à couteaux tirés (fr)
• Polish: z nożem w zębach (pl)
• Welsh: yn barod i ymladd, ar daro, am waed eich gilydd, yn benben

See also

• at each other's throats
• at loggerheads
• the knives are out

Further reading

• At Daggers Drawn (disambiguation) on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• “at daggers drawn” under “dagger, n.¹”, in OED Online ⁠, Oxford: Oxford University Press, December 2023.
• “at daggers drawn”, in Cambridge English Dictionary, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire: Cambridge University Press, 1999–present.
• “at daggers drawn, phrase”, in Collins English Dictionary; from Collins COBUILD Advanced Dictionary, 6th edition, Boston, Mass.: Heinle Cengage Learning; Glasgow: HarperCollins Publishers, 2009, →ISBN.
• “be at daggers drawn” in Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English, Longman.
• “be at daggers drawn” (UK) in Macmillan English Dictionary.