Meaning & use
fight out
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Meaning
verbphrasal verbinformal
To settle a dispute or competition by continuing to struggle against each other until one side wins.
Grammar: Usually fight it out: let them fight it out; the object comes between the verb and out.
Patterns
- fight it out
- fight something out with someone
- fight out a battle
The two brothers went outside to fight it out.
The teams will fight it out for the last place in the final.
Let the candidates fight it out in a debate.
Word forms
| third person singular | fights out |
|---|---|
| past tense | fought out |
| past participle | fought out |
| -ing form | fighting out |
Common combinations
- fight it out
- The rivals fought it out until midnight.
- fight it out in court
- They decided to fight it out in court.
- fight it out on the field
- The two sides fight it out on the field every year.
- leave them to fight it out
- We left them to fight it out.
- fight it out to the end
- They fought it out to the bitter end.
Synonyms and how they differ
- battle it out
- Battle it out is nearly identical but stresses a longer or more intense competition.
- duke it out
- Duke it out is more slangy and suggests an actual physical fight.
- settle
- Settle is neutral and may be done peacefully, whereas fight out implies struggle.
- resolve
- Resolve is formal and suggests finding a solution, not contesting it.
Opposites
Word family
Commonly confused: fight out or fight back?
fight out vs fight back
Fight back means to resist an attack, while fight it out means two sides contest until one wins.
Practice
The managers could not agree, so they decided to ______ in a meeting.
Choose one answer.
Fight it out means to settle a dispute by contest. Fight them off means to repel attackers, so it does not describe a disagreement between managers.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “fight out”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.