fight the good fight
English
Etymology
A translation of the Koine Greek phrase ἀγωνίζου τὸν καλὸν ἀγῶνα τῆς πίστεως (agōnízou tòn kalòn agôna tês písteōs, “fight the good fight of faith”) in 1 Timothy 6:12 that appeared first in the Tyndale Bible, then in the King James Version.
Verb
fight the good fight (third-person singular simple present fights the good fight, present participle fighting the good fight, simple past and past participle fought the good fight)
- To battle or try to achieve something for a noble cause.
- 1820 March, [Walter Scott], chapter XII, in The Monastery. A Romance. […], volume III, Edinburgh: […] Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown, […]; and for Archibald Constable and Co., and John Ballantyne, […], OCLC 892089409, pages 300–301:
- "My brethren," he said, "since God has not given our people victory in the combat, it must be because he requires of us, his spiritual soldiers, to fight the good fight of martyrdom, [...]"
- 1912, Mary Roberts Rinehart, "God's Fool" in Love Stories:
- [W]ho had imagined that her instruments of healing were a thermometer and a prayer-book; and who found herself fighting the good fight with a bandage machine?
- 2001 June 10, Walter Kim, "What Do You Tell The Kids?," Time (retrieved 16 July 2014):
- Wouldn't it be nobler by far to fight the good fight with all the weapons available: a firm bass voice, a wagging finger, the Bible?
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