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• dog-eat-dog
  dog-eat-dog

  adjective

  marked by destructive or ruthless competition; without self-restraint, ethics, etc..
• 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).

dog-eat-dog

American  

[dawg-eet-dawg, dog-eet-dog] / ˈdɔg itˈdɔg, ˈdɒg itˈdɒg /

adjective

1. marked by destructive or ruthless competition; without self-restraint, ethics, etc..

   It's a dog-eat-dog industry.

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noun

1. complete egotism; action based on utter cynicism.

   The only rule of the marketplace was dog-eat-dog.

dog-eat-dog Cultural  

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

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dog eat dog Idioms  

1. 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).

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Etymology

Origin of dog-eat-dog

First recorded in 1930–35

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

dog-eat-dog dog eat dog

"It's a dog-eat-dog world in the Championship," added England Under-19 international Monga.

From BBC ● Aug. 5, 2026

“JUCO is … a dog-eat-dog world. So I think that kind of heightened everything and the sense or urgency to learn it.”

From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 17, 2025

It’s a dog-eat-dog, survival-of-the-fittest environment that has left schools scrambling to maintain their relevance in a collegiate world already uprooted by the Name, Image and Likeness revolution and transfer portal upheaval.

From Seattle Times ● Jun. 30, 2022

The strong are not safe either in that kind of dog-eat-dog world — they are at risk from each other.

From Salon ● Jun. 12, 2022

My high school friends would still have been whining over boyfriends and fighting for carhop jobs at the A&W. Their idea of a dog-eat-dog world was Beauty School.

From "The Poisonwood Bible" by Barbara Kingsolver

Conversely, U.S. businesses exhibiting "toxicity" - where employees use idioms as specific as "good ol' boys club" and "dog eat dog" - have vastly underperformed, Wu said.

From Reuters ● Oct. 20, 2021

It’s not as dog eat dog as it is out there on the big tour.

From Washington Times ● Feb. 28, 2020

And it's a choice, if you're operating in this system that we have, which in America is a very carnivorous one: it's very dog eat dog.

From Salon ● Jul. 16, 2019

Driving puts you in a constant position of asking, Are we in a place where there is a system of self-restraint, or are we in a place where it’s dog eat dog?

From Seattle Times ● Jan. 7, 2018

“In my family, it’s dog eat dog and every dog for himself! Where’s Jenny? I need to bark some sense into Jenny!”

From "Dog Squad" by Chris Grabenstein