neck or nothing

adv

adv

Etymology Originally a steeplechase phrase; to win by a neck or to be nowhere—i.e. not counted at all because unworthy of notice.

Dated at all costs.

It is a neck-or-nothing venture to wrest valuable merchandise traffic from road transport.1960 January, G. Freeman Allen, “"Condor"—British Railways' fastest freight train”, in Trains Illustrated, page 45:

Entry derived from the Wiktionary, under licence CC BY-SA 4.0 — list of authors.