Anultimatoryverbal phrase composed of the words:either,do,or, anddie.
eitherdoordie (third-person singular simple presenteither does or dies,present participleeither doing or dying,simple pasteither did or died,past participleeither done or died)
The instant phrase, formulated as an "either...or..." statement employing thecorrelativeconjunction either/or, is the original formulation of the expression which would later be truncated todo or die as either a verbal or adjectival phrase, and even later expressed asdo-or-die in rendering an adjectival meaning. Though there is nothing inherently preventing such a usage, the phrase containing the correlative conjunction has not often been used adjectivally but has generally been used verbally, that containing the hyphens has generally only been used adjectivally, while the phrase without hyphens or the correlative conjunction is used both ways.