From Longman Dictionary of Contemporary Englishfighting spiritfighting spiritFIGHTthe desire to fight or win In the second half the team showed their true fighting spirit. → fight
Examples from the Corpus
fighting spirit• I admire the team's fighting spirit.• Do you suppose he has to carry on a campaign of propaganda to get his people into fighting spirit?• On the battlefield armament was still much less important than discipline and fighting spirit.• She also has a fighting spirit.• With so many enemies, we need a great deal of fighting spirit.• We shall have to match his fighting spirit, and not let our fear overwhelm us before the first blow is struck.• Although these patients usually have astonishingly good morale and fighting spirit, everything humanely possible should be done to keep it up.• After a long time, her fighting spirit gradually revived and she began to think constructively.• Fortunately, though, we had a fighting spirit which helped us pull through. 