be down to the wire

be down to the wire

To be unresolved until the last possible second. Negotiations are down to the wire, and I'm worried we won't agree on a new contract by the deadline.

See also: down, wire

Farlex Dictionary of Idioms. © 2015 Farlex, Inc, all rights reserved.

*down-to-the-wire

Fig. waiting until the very last moment; right up to the deadline. (*Typically: be ~; get ~.) It came down-to-the-wire before I turned the proposal in. We went right down-to-the-wire on that one.

McGraw-Hill Dictionary of American Idioms and Phrasal Verbs. © 2002 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.