last resort

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last resort (plural last resorts)

1. (idiomatic) The only remaining, often least desirable, option when all others have been excluded.

   Synonym: last refuge

   I wouldn't recommend doing surgery on yourself, unless it is a last resort.

   • 1951 October, R. S. McNaught, “Lines of Approach”, in Railway Magazine, page 705:

     The present writer was once asked to name what he considered to be "the most typically English railway approach to a town": a somewhat tall order, especially as such matters will always be, in the last resort, of individual opinion. But the unhesitating answer to this question (which has not been altered after many years of extended travel throughout England) was "Sudbury, in Suffolk."

   • 2020 July 15, “Transport Focus: clear message needed on face coverings”, in RAIL, page 9:

     "Only as an absolute last resort will we carry out enforcement in the form of fines. We are sure that the public will want to be responsible and do their part to protect others by wearing face coverings."

• drug of last resort
• lender of last resort

• last-ditch
• desperate times call for desperate measures
• last gasp
• last stand
• in extremis