rat race

plural rat races · alternative rat-race

1. informalAn activity or situation which is congested with participants and which is hectic or tedious, especially in the context of a busy, modern urban lifestyle.

   […] a 1950s-ish town, keeping a sense of community far from the superhighway rat race.

   2006 May 14, Richard Corliss, “Get Your Motor Running”, in Time

2. broadlyThe busy, modern, urban lifestyle itself, especially when seen as a competition for wealth or power.

   Forget about the rat race / Let's do the Milkshake / Selling like a hotcake

   1979, Robin Scott, “Pop Muzik”

   2 more examples

   I was running away […] from my inability, although I am quite an attractive rat, to make headway in the rat-race.

   1980 [1962], Ian Fleming, chapter 1, in The Spy Who Loved Me, →ISBN, page 3

   Echoing Allen Ginsberg, he contends that the suburban setting of “Father Knows Best” is most accurately seen as America's “ludicrous breeding ground for the young meat who will be fed into its wars and rat races and inhuman conformities.”

   1989 April 30, Martha Bayles, quoting David Marc, “Taking Sitcoms Seriously”, in The New York Times, →ISSN

3. businessInconsiderate or unfair competition, where the competitors are willing to use any means to win.