if/when push comes to shove
C2 If something can be done if push comes to shove, it can be done if the situation becomes so bad that you have to do it:
If push comes to shove, we can always sell the car.
Thesaurus: synonyms and related words
Essential or necessary
- a man's gotta do what a man's gotta do idiom
- basically
- basis
- be a question of doing sth idiom
- business-critical
- dependence
- imply
- incumbent
- indispensable
- inherent
- integral
- interdependent
- needed
- needful
- occasion
- on a need-to-know basis idiom
- owe
- owe it to yourself idiom
- underlying
- warrant
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