LAST RESORT

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does last resort mean? 

• LAST RESORT (noun)
  The noun LAST RESORT has 1 sense:

1. an expedient adopted only in desperation

  Familiarity information: LAST RESORT used as a noun is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• LAST RESORT (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

An expedient adopted only in desperation

Classified under:

Nouns denoting acts or actions

Synonyms:

last resort; pis aller

Context example:

'pis aller' is French for 'worst going'

Hypernyms ("last resort" is a kind of...):

expedient (a means to an end; not necessarily a principled or ethical one)

 Context examples 

It is the last resort for people with heart failure when all other treatments have failed.

(Heart Transplantation, NIH: National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute)

Generally this route is considered as a last resort for drug administration, and provides a fast, effective means of drug delivery in a patient who requires immediate medication.

(Endotracheal Route of Administration, NCI Thesaurus)

What share of knowledge these lords had in the laws of their country, and how they came by it, so as to enable them to decide the properties of their fellow-subjects in the last resort?

(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)

He is usually governed by a decayed wench, or favourite footman, who are the tunnels through which all graces are conveyed, and may properly be called, in the last resort, the governors of the kingdom.

(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)