以死相争= ???

[wrbt]

I'm obviously missing something here. 以死相争 is from an essay in Chinese voices project, the entire sentence being:

如果遇到没良心的包工头，有时还要以死相争，才能拿到辛苦钱

Thanks in advance!

[rootfool]

以死相争=fight for sth by self-slaughter.

In here it means "they claim to the boss:if he don't give them the salary,they will kill themselves."

hope it helps.

[skylee]

The phrase means "fight like their lives depend on it", to the extent of threatening to kill themselves to get what they want.

[littleknight23]

Sorry, 以死相争 does not mean …they will kill themselves

It means they will fight for their salary even if lost their lives

In fact, Chinese people hardly use self-destruction when the get unfair treatment, they usually 以死相争，it means they may kill the boss

And another related phrase is同归于尽 which means perish together

By the way, I am a native Chinese speaker and I work as a copywriter, so maybe my English is poor, but my Chinese always are excellent

Please correct my sentence while you find the mistakes in it, I will appreciate you a lot

[wrbt]

Thanks for the help all. I knew the first part but didn't know the xiang zheng and the dictionary definition just didn't fit to make sense of it to me. All is clear now, much appreciated. Also:

Please correct my sentence while you find the mistakes in it

Use the plural "sentences" and adjust related references, also use "if" or "when" as the conditional:

Please correct my sentences when you find mistakes in them

or

Please correct my sentences if you find mistakes in them

I will appreciate you a lot

For expressing appreciation in this case you'll want to reference the act of correcting instead of the person:

I would appreciate it

much appreciated

It also might sound more natural at the beginning "I would appreciate it if...."

[rootfool]

Sorry, 以死相争 does not mean …they will kill themselves

It means they will fight for their salary even if lost their lives

see it here

they usually 以死相争，it means they may kill the boss

I had never heard any news about "农民工 killed their boss",and I don't know what key words to choose to find news about this in "baidu".

In my opinion,

以死相争 equals 以死相逼 but not 拼死相争 in this sentence.

Maybe I'm wrong,it's just a personal thought.

[littleknight23]

wrbt, thanks for your correcting

rootfool, I agree with you to a certain extent, but how to say, in my opinion, it seems that 以死相争 here means both "以死相逼, namely kill themselves for the salary" and "may kill the boss and perish together". it depends on the situation

In fact, both "kill themselves" and "kill the boss" has happend in China.

[fishyqs]

“以死相争”is a idiom, it means one fighting for something at all cost. So, maybe kill oneself, maybe kill the boss, and do something other may have serious consequences .