last stand

(This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium.)

• enPR: läst stănd, lăst stănd, IPA^(key): /lɑːst stænd/, /læst stænd/
  • (UK) [lɑːst stænd]
  • (US) [ɫæst stɛə̯nd]

last stand (plural last stands)

1. (also figurative) A military encounter, especially against (often greatly) superior odds, generally as a last resort, whether to save another army or city, or as a last act of defiance, and often resulting in the total annihilation of the weaker force.

   Little Big Horn is the place of Custer's last stand.

   to make one's last stand

   • 2019 February 27, Drachinifel, The Battle of Samar - Odds? What are those?‎, archived from the original on 3 November 2022, 34:35 from the start:

     After a forty-five-minute struggle against vastly-unequal odds, aboard the Johnston, the order is given to abandon ship. The ship goes down twenty-five minutes later, at ten minutes past ten, taking one hundred and eighty-six of her crew, including the gallant Captain Evans, with her. He will receive a posthumous Medal of Honor for his actions; in its last stand, the ship still managed to draw off considerable fire that would otherwise have likely led to the loss of more American ships.

• “last stand”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.