at daggers drawn

• daggers drawn

Compare French à couteaux tirés.

This etymology is incomplete. You can help Wiktionary by elaborating on the origins of this term.

at daggers drawn

1. (UK) In a state of open hostility.
   • 2002, Colin Jones, The Great Nation, Penguin, published 2003, page 74:

     the house of Condé, collateral with the Bourbons, was perennially at daggers drawn with the rival Orléans dynasty […]

   • 2011 April 28, Martin Kettle, The Guardian:

     But 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.

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

• “at daggers drawn” in the Cambridge English Dictionary, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
• “be at daggers drawn” (UK) in Macmillan English Dictionary.
• “be at daggers drawn” in Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English, Longman.