a. 1715. There was a sure way never to see it lost, and that was to die in the last ditch.—Burnet, ‘Own Time,’ i. 457. (N.E.D.)
1800. [This] is now the last ditch of argument in which the federals take refuge.—The Aurora, Phila., Dec. 8.
1821. Thomas Jefferson. (N.E.D.)
