pay the ultimate price

English

pay the ultimate price (third-person singular simple present pays the ultimate price, present participle paying the ultimate price, simple past and past participle paid the ultimate price)

To die as a result of a fatal choice or decision, or because of deep commitments.
- 2022 January 12, Nigel Harris, “Comment: Unhappy start to 2022”, in RAIL, number 948, page 3:
  On the East and West Coast Main Lines in the 1950s/60s, for example, we saw the extinction of intermediate stations in order to create the same sort of accelerations that IRP is now promising. Back then, the priority was faster main line services, with wayside/intermediate stations paying the ultimate price.
- 2022 March 1, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, 0:00 from the start, in Zelensky receives standing ovation after speech to European Parliament‎^[1], CNN:
  I speak today now about my citizens- citizens of Ukraine- who are defending- by paying the ultimate price- defending freedom. I'm very happy what I've seen here now, and heard here now, I'm very glad to sense this mood- the uniting, unified mood. I'm happy that we have unified today, all of you, all the countries of the European Union but I did not know that this is the price they will have to pay.