come hell or high water

No matter what happens; COME WHAT MAY. The origin of this expression has been lost. One authority claims it is a variation of BETWEEN THE DEVIL AND THE DEEP BLUE SEA, “hell” and “high water” repre- senting similar great obstacles. It appears to have originated shortly after 1900. In 1939, at the outbreak of World War II, A. Keith wrote about impe- rialism, “Let empires be built—come hell or high water, they build ’em.”