fight a rearguard action

to try very hard to prevent something from happening when it is probably too late to prevent it (often + against ) The unions were fighting a rearguard action against the government's attempt to strip them of their powers.

Common Names:

Name	Pronounced	Usage
Armstrong	['a:mstrɔŋ]
Evdokiya	yev-dah-KEE-yah (Russian), eev-dah-KEE-yah (Russian)	Bulgarian, Russian
Kishor	-	Indian, Hindi, Marathi, Tamil, Telugu, Nepali
Lucien	-	French
Iman	-	Arabic, Persian, Indonesian
Kishore	-	Indian, Hindi, Marathi, Tamil, Telugu