rearguard action

plural rearguard actions

1. governmentAn offensive action by a rearguard.
2. figurativelyA desperate attempt to forestall the inevitable.

   to fight a rearguard action

   1 more example

   The New English came to control Ireland — their ultimate expression was the powerful ascendancy which enjoyed exclusive political power in the country for more than a century, and which fought a dogged rearguard action against diminution of its power during the nineteenth century.

   1991, Peter R. Newman, “New English”, in Companion to Irish History, 1603–1921, Oxford: Facts On File, →ISBN, page 132