pay the ultimate price
Lose your life
To pay the ultimate price is to die for something—a cause, a mistake, a moment of heroism or recklessness.
The phrase appears in contexts ranging from war memorials to crime reports: Three firefighters paid the ultimate price battling the blaze.
It frames death as a transaction, the costliest possible exchange for whatever was at stake.
- loseFail to keep
- payWages for work
- dieStop being alive
- consequenceResult of an action
- sacrificeGiving up something precious
martyrdom · fatalities · nobility · heroism · forfeiture · altruism · give up · renunciation · courage · battlefield · selflessness · gallantry · death · lay down one's life · supreme sacrifice · devotion · soldier · war hero
pay the ultimate pricesurvive
Continue to exist
live to tell the tale · live · cheat death · walk away · live to fight another day
paying, payable, payment, payer, payers, payee, payees, ultimate, ultimately