Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
Definition: Die Hard |
Die HardVerb1. Continue to exist; "These stories die hard". 2. Cease slowly; "Old habit die hard". Source: WordNet 1.7.1 Copyright © 2001 by Princeton University. All rights reserved. |
| Domain | Definition |
Slang in 1811 | DIE HARD, or GAME. To die hard, is to shew no signs of fear or contrition at the gallows; not to whiddle or squeak. This advice is frequently given to felons going to suffer the law, by their old comrades, anxious for the honour of the gang. Source: 1811 Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue. |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
(From Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia)
The film opens with New York City police detective John McClane coming to Los Angeles to reunite with his estranged wife for the Christmas holidays. He meets her at her place of work, a large office building called The Nakatomi Plaza, which is in the middle of a Christmas party. After an initial meeting which included strained greetings with her boss and an oily colleague, the couple have an argument over their separation and her decision to address by her maiden name. Holly rejoins the party while John stays in a room kicking himself for picking a fight with his wife.
warning: wikipedia contains spoilers
Unknown to them, a gang of terrorist lead by Hans Gruber invades the building and seizes control of the building's security and communication systems as they isolate it from the outside. Then they take the entire staff of the Nakatomi head office hostage and take the regional director for some private business. Once alone, they reveal that they are not terrorists, but actually criminals who are posing as terrorists in their plan to rob $600 million dollars worth of Bearer bonds from the Nakatomi Building's main vault. When the director refuses to give the access codes to the vault, he is shot dead and the gang implement their secondary plan to break into the vault. Secretly, they are also planning to murder all their hostages in a cold-blooded scheme to fake their deaths to hide their escape.
John McClane manages to slip away and, shoeless and armed only with his sidearm, tries to call for the authorities. However, that proves to be a difficult task since when he pulls the fire alarm, the gang detects it and call the Fire Department off. The youngest member of the gang is sent to investigate and kill the meddler, but John kills him instead. Grabbing his two way radio, McClane desperately calls for help, but the police don't believe him and are more concerned about him making another false alarm. McClane offers to give himself up if they would send an officer to arrest him at the building, but only when the police hear automatic weapons fire as three of Gruber's minions attack McClane do they respond. Unfortunately for McClane, Gruber's gang overhears this attempt and already have a member in the lobby to pose as a security guard to divert investigators. While McClane is fighting for his life, Sgt. Al Powell is sent to investigate the building and is fooled into thinking all is in order. After killing the goons, McClane learns to his horror that the cop who is his last chance to get help is leaving. In one last desperate effort, McClane throws one of the dead criminals on top of the cop's car and fires on it, forcing the cop to frantically call in back up.
Now having definite proof of a terrorist attack, the police respond in full force with all their resources. However, while it is sooner than they had wanted, this was part of Hans Gruber's plan to break into the vault by manipulating the authorities into inadvertently assisting them in their break in and subsequent escape. The problem for them is that John McClane, seeing the apparent incompetence of the LAPD, is forced to take action and fight the terrorists from inside and more importantly, he also has the critical detonators that were one of his slain opponent's responsibility. What follows is a cat and mouse game as Hans Gruber tries to implement his group's plan while recovering the detonators and simultaneously trying to stop McClane from interfering further.
Eventually, after numerous deadly engagements, where McClane's only confidant over his radio among the hostile police force is Sgt. Al Powell, the detonators are recovered but McClane figures out the death faking plan which involves exploding the roof with the hostages on top. He manages to drive the hostages off the roof and barely manages to escape himself when Gruber sets off the explosion. Meanwhile, the main power is cut by the FBI which allows Gruber's gang to bypass the last of the obstacles and enter the vault. Meanwhile, an irresponsible TV reporter finds out about McClane's activity in the building and goes to his children's home for an easy news story. This alerts Gruber that Holly, who wisely hid her marriage to John from him, is an ideal hostage.
The film climaxes with a battered and beaten McClane, who just had to defeat the brutally vengeful older brother of his first opponent, confronting Gruber one last time. With only two bullets in a gun he hid on his back, McClane manages to kill two of the remaining three gang members, including Gruber and rescues Holly while his chauffeur from the airport who was trapped in the locked down parking garage, manages to capture the remaining terrorist who was making an escape.
Source: adapted by the editor from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia under a copyleft GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL) from the article "Die Hard."
Synonyms: Die HardSynonyms: endure (v), persist (v), prevail (v), run (v). (additional references) |
| Context | Synonyms within Context (source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus). |
Obstinacy | Die hard, fight against destiny, not yield an inch, stand out. |
Resistance | Prendre le mors aux dents; sell one's life dearly, die hard, keep at bay; repel, repulse. |
| Source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus. | |
Crosswords: Die Hard |
| Specialty definitions using "die hard": Dying Sayings. (references) |
| Domain | Usage | |
Screenplays | Remember, fans, Tuesday is Die Hard Night. (Major League; writing credit: David S. Ward) What really matters is that people care about you, whether it's a whole crowd or just one die hard fan. (Futurama; writing credit: Lance Smith; Carl Colpaert) | |
Movie/TV Titles | Angels Die Hard (1970) Behind the Scenes: Die Hard - With a Vengeance (1995) Die Hard (1992) | |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | ||
| Domain | Title |
Theater & Movies | |
High Tech |
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Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| Thumbnail | Description & Credit | Thumbnail | Description & Credit |
 | Taken from the top of a navigational aid near Sabine Pass, Texas. Changing Mini-ranger die hard batteries. Credit: America's Coastlines. |  | You can get AIDS : bad habits die hard! / Walt Neil. Credit: National Library of Medicine. |
Source: pictures compiled by the editor from various references; see picture credits. | |||
| Author | Quotation |
George Washington | It is well, I die hard, but I am not afraid to go. [Dec. 14, 1977] |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references. | |
| The following statistics estimate the number of searches per day across the major English-language search engines as identified by various trade publications. Hyperlinks lead to commercial use of the expression at Amazon.com. |
| Language | Translations for "die hard"; alternative meanings/domain in parentheses. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Albanian | politikan kokëfortë, konservator (conservative, conservatoire, conservatory, tory). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Arabic | عنيد (adamant, asinine, contrary, coriaceous, dogged, dour, fractious, hardheaded, headstrong, heady, implacable, incorrigible, inelastic, inexorable, inflexible, intractable, intransigent, inveterate, irreconcilable, mulish, nagging, obdurate, obstinate, opinionated, ornery, peevish, persevering, pertinacious, perverse, piggish, pigheaded, refractory, rigid, scabrous, scratchy, self willed, stiff, stiff necked, stout, stubborn, sullen, tenacious, thwart, uncompromising, unruly, unwilling, unyielding, wilful, willful, wrongheaded), المحافظ (fogy, governor, mayor), إستسلم بعد نضال, رجعي (atavistic, fusty, reactionary, reactive, retroactive, retrograde). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Bulgarian | упорит (asinine, constant, defiant, dogged, flinty, gritty, hard bitten, hard boiled, hard core, hard set, hardheaded, hard-shell, importunate, incompliant, indomitable, insistent, intractable, inveterate, mulish, obdurate, obstinate, opinionated, patient, persevering, persistent, pertinacious, piggish, purposeful, refractory, self willed, self-opinionated, set, spiky, stolid, stout, stouthearted, strenuous, sturdy, tenacious, tough, unpliant, unremitting, unwearing, wilful, wrongheaded), твърдоглавец, твърдоглав (contumacious, dogged, piggish, pigheaded, self-opinionated, uncompliant, wrongheaded), консерватор (rightist, right-winger), консервативен (conservative, old fashioned, right, right wing, tory), непримирим (bitter, immitigable, intransigent, irreconcilable, unappeasable, unforgiving, unrelenting, warring). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Chinese | 百足之蟲死而不僵 (a centipede dies but never falls down, old institutions die hard). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Czech | mít tuhý život. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
French | réactionnaire (diehard), intransigeant. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Greek | συντηρητικόσ (conservative, staid), πεθαίνω δύσκολα, άκροσ συντηρητικόσ. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Hungarian | szívós (hardy, indefatigable, leathery, persistent, stout, to die hard, tough, wiry), nehezen vész ki (to die hard), nehezen tűnik el (to die hard), nehezen hal meg (to die hard), lassan vész ki (to die hard), lassan múlik el (to die hard). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Italian | persona ostinata. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Pig Latin | ieday ardhay muri luptând pânã la ultimã suflare, inveterat (arrant, confirmed, deep-seated, engrained, hopeless, ingrained, irreclaimable), conservator (blue, conservative, conservatoire, conservatory, rightist, tory), încãpãţânat (awkward, contumacious, dogged, dour, hard, headstrong, inveterate, mule, mulish, obdurate, obstinate, opinionated, opinioned, pertinacious, perverse, pig-headed, refractory, royalist, self willed, stolid, stubborn, tough, unwilling, wilful). (various references) твердолобый (diehard). (various references) tvrdoglav (crabby, cross-grained, hard bitten, hardheaded, headstrong, heady, intractable, mulish, obstinate, opinionated, pigheaded, pig-headed, stiff necked, stubborn, willful), nepopustljiv (adamant, iron-bound, unaccommodating, uncomplying, unforgiving, unrelenting, unremitting, unyielding), krajnje konzervativan. (various references) duro (adamant, bad, bumpy, difficult, hard, hard boiled, hard liner, hardcore, hard-hearted, harsh, intensive, leather, old, ole, rough, severe, stale, stern, stiff, stony, strong, stubborn, tough, unkind), valiente (a devil of a fellow, bold, brave, courageous, efficient, gallant, game, industrious, manful, manly, nice, stout hearted, urbane, valiant), rebelde (insubordinate, insurgent, mutinous, rebel, rebellious, refractory, revolted, revolting, undisciplined, wayward), reaccionario (reactionary, reactionist), intransigente (hidebound, intransigent, uncompromising), incondicional (implicit, staunch, unconditional, unconditioned, unqualified, unquestioning), empedernido (confirmed, double-dyed, habitual, heartless, inveterate, stony), acérrimo (all out, hot, out and out, stalwart, very strong). (various references) vara seglivad, stockkonservativ, seglivad (hard to kill, tough), reaktionär (reactionary, retrograde). (various references) dokuzcanlı şey, dikkafalı kimse, tutucu kimse (fanatic, fuddy-duddy, old fogey, old fogy, sectarian, stickler), inatçı (balky, bullet-head, bull-headed, cantankerous, contrary, contumacious, cussed, difficult, dogged, dour, fractious, hard bitten, hard-headed, hard-mouthed, hard-nosed, headstrong, heady, indocile, inflexible, insistent, intractable, mule, mulish, obdurate, obstinate, obstinate person, opinionated, persistent, pertinacious, perverse, pigheaded, rebellious, recalcitrant, refractory, restive, self willed, self-opinionated, set, spiky, stern, sticker, stickler, sticky, stiff necked, strongheaded, strong-willed, stubborn, tenacious, unbending, uncompromising, unyielding, wilful, willful, wrongheaded), eski kafalı kimse (antediluvian, back number, fogey, fogy, fossil, fuddy-duddy, old fogey, old fogy, Square). (various references) уперта людина (beast, mule), твердолобий, незламний (adamant, adamantine, never say die), непохитний (adamant, adamantine, granitic, granitical, hard and fast, immovable, impregnable, inflexible, inviolable, never say die, relentless, rocky, stable, steady, unbending, unshaken, unswerving, unyielding), живуча людина. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Scrabble® Enable2K-Verified Anagrams | |
Direct Anagrams: diehard. | |
| Words within the letters "a-d-d-e-h-i-r" | |
-1 letter: haired, raided. | |
-2 letters: adder, aided, aider, aired, dared, deair, dread, dried, haded, hared, heard, hided, hider, hired, irade, readd, redia, redid. | |
-3 letters: aide, arid, dare, dead, dear, died, dire, hade, haed, hair, hard, hare, head, hear, heir, herd, hide, hied, hire, idea, ired, raid, read, redd, rhea, ride. | |
-4 letters: add, aid, air, are, dad. | |
| Words containing the letters "a-d-d-e-h-i-r" | |
+1 letter: diehards, dihedral, rawhided. | |
+2 letters: airheaded, anhydride, dihedrals, hagridden, hardwired, hydrazide. | |
+3 letters: anhydrides, brandished, bridgehead, discharged, hardfisted, hydrazides, ironhanded. | |
+4 letters: bridgeheads, dehydrating, dehydration, kindhearted, philandered, philodendra, rhapsodized. | |
+5 letters: chandeliered, dehydrations, disaccharide, disheartened, hemihydrated, merchandised, merchandized, radiographed, undischarged. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. SCRABBLE® is a registered trademark. All intellectual property rights in and to the game are owned in the U.S.A and Canada by Hasbro Inc., and throughout the rest of the world by J.W. Spear & Sons Limited of Maidenhead, Berkshire, England, a subsidiary of Mattel Inc. Mattel and Spear are not affiliated with Hasbro. | |
| 1. Definition 2. Synonyms 3. Crosswords 4. Usage: Modern | 5. Usage: Commercial 6. Images: Photo Album 7. Quotations: Familiar 8. Expressions: Internet | 9. Translations: Modern 10. Anagrams 11. Bibliography |
Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
