dog-eat-dog

[ dawg-eet-dawg, dog-eet-dog ]
See synonyms for dog-eat-dog on Thesaurus.com
adjective
  1. marked by destructive or ruthless competition; without self-restraint, ethics, etc.: It's a dog-eat-dog industry.

noun
  1. complete egotism; action based on utter cynicism: The only rule of the marketplace was dog-eat-dog.

Origin of dog-eat-dog

1
First recorded in 1930–35

Words Nearby dog-eat-dog

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024

How to use dog-eat-dog in a sentence

  • If it's got to be dog eat dog, and no gents need apply at a firemen's muster, then here's where we have our part of the lunch.

  • No one could have characterized the kind of thing he had done more severely than he when he called it dog eat dog.

    The March Family Trilogy, Complete | William Dean Howells
  • It was a half-ludicrous, half-horrible "dog eat dog," an unspeakable cannibalism.

    The Octopus | Frank Norris

Cultural definitions for dog-eat-dog

dog-eat-dog

Ruthlessly competitive: “You have to look out for your own interests; it's a dog-eat-dog world.”

The New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy, Third Edition Copyright © 2005 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

Other Idioms and Phrases with dog-eat-dog

dog-eat-dog

Ruthless acquisition or competition, as in With shrinking markets, it's dog eat dog for every company in this field. This contradicts a Latin proverb which maintains that dog does not eat dog, first recorded in English in 1543. Nevertheless, by 1732 it was put as “Dogs are hard drove when they eat dogs” (Thomas Fuller, Gnomologia).

The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary Copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.