Definition of "bitter end" []

• A final, painful, or disastrous extremity. (noun)
• Nautical The inboard end of a chain, rope, or cable, especially the end of a rope or cable that is wound around a bitt. (noun)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "For three or four years they had fought our troops obstinately, and surrendered at the bitter end in the belief that they were merely overpowered, not conquered."
• "Falk on the indignities we suffer in our death-denying culture, “where patients, regardless of mental status or the irreversibility of disease, are treated until the bitter end when they lie bloated, bleeding, and crushed after the final flurry of infusions and cardiac massage.”"