rat race

American

noun

Informal.

any exhausting, unremitting, and usually competitive activity or routine, especially a pressured urban working life spent trying to get ahead with little time left for leisure, contemplation, etc.

rat race British

noun

a continual routine of hectic competitive activity

working in the City is a real rat race

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

rat race Idioms

Fierce competition to maintain or improve one's position in the workplace or social life. For example, You may not realize what a rat race it is to get research grants. This term presumably alludes to the rat's desperate struggle for survival. [Colloquial; first half of 1900s]

Etymology

Origin of rat race

An Americanism dating back to 1935–40

Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

See Examples For:

rat race

More and more young people talk about feeling burnt out, question the point of staying in the rat race and, in some cases, feel bruised by their parents' tough love.

From BBC ● Jun. 13, 2026

“We’ve left the rat race and false people behind,” he said.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jan. 31, 2026

China’s industrial rat race helped power the country’s economic miracle.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jan. 28, 2026

For this Money Talks, it’s time to turn the rat race into a rat walk on the beach.

From Slate ● Oct. 1, 2024

“Joey also wants you to know that he has dropped out of the rat race and has rejoined the human race.”

From "Fourth Grade Rats" by Jerry Spinelli

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023