crawl over each other

verb

To compete with others eagerly or fiercely in pursuit of the same goal(s).

Ask AI about this wordChatGPTClaudePerplexityGoogle AIGrok

Meanings

verbcrawl over each other (no third-person singular simple present, present participle crawling over each other, simple past and past participle crawled over each other)

participle present crawling over each other · participle past crawled over each other · past crawled over each other

  1. idiomaticreciprocalTo compete with others eagerly or fiercely in pursuit of the same goal(s).

    We crawl over each other in our race for power, wealth, and fame.

    1984, Og Mandino, The Choice, Bantam, published 1986, →ISBN, page 110
    2 more examples

    By the time "The Contest" was repeated on April 29, 1993, the first night of that year's May sweeps, Seinfeld was a Top Ten show on Thursday nights, and advertisers were crawling over each other to sign up.

    1998, Kathleen Tracy, Jerry Seinfeld: The Entire Domain, Carol Publishing Group, →ISBN, page 133

    […] game shows like Survivor, where young, attractive (mainly white, but definitely affluent or unthreateningly petit-bourgeois) people are invited to pretend that they are alone in the 'wilderness' and must crawl over each other for access to food, shelter and sex.

    2005, David Cox, Sign Wars: The Culture Jammers Strike Back, UoM Custom Book Centre, →ISBN, page 206
Cite this entry
APA

crawl over each other. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 5, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/crawl%20over%20each%20other

MLA

“crawl over each other.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/crawl%20over%20each%20other. Accessed November 5, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “crawl over each other,” accessed November 5, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/crawl%20over%20each%20other.

Source: crawl over each other on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.