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. In general, it can also the name of the location of this clash. (In some cases it may become part of the local name.)

   The Battle of the Little Bighorn saw the last stand of General Custer's division at what is now called Last Stand Hill.

   to make one's last stand

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

     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.