dog eat dog

alternative dog-eat-dog · alternative doggy dog · alternative doggy-dog

1. idiomaticinformalnot comparableRuthlessly acquisitive or competitive; of a business or other set of circumstances, trying to succeed at the expense of other people.

   dog-eat-dog world

   5 more examples

   In this company it's dog eat dog. If you don't do better than the rest, you're on the street in next to no time.

   […] Turpin swore, if he did not deliver immediately he would shoot him through the Head, upon which King fell a Laughing, and said, What! Dog eat Dog?

   1739, The Genuine History of the Life of Richard Turpin, page 15

   By mutual agreement of the French Captain and ours, and by consent of the officers, considering, as the Captain said, privateers fighting was dog eat dog, and nothing to be got but hard blows and rags […]

   1795, Mark Moore, The Memoirs and Adventures of Mark Moore, Late an Officer in the British Navy

   He has acted upon the principle of dog eat dog; and has fallen upon his own-brethren of the broad sheet, saying worse of them almost than I ever did; but still not half so bad as they "deserve.

   1825 December 10, “To My True Disciples”, in Cobbett's Political Register, page 661

   In that event, as clear as fog, / You'll know what's meant by dog eat dog!

   1851 April, The Knickerbocker; Or, New-York Monthly Magazine

   Synonyms: every man for himself, kill or be killed