sauve qui peut

British  

/ sov ki pø /

noun

1. a state of panic or disorder; rout

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Etymology

Origin of sauve qui peut

literally: save (himself) who can

Example Sentences

If we've gotten to the point where inequality deepens, and crises with the rest of the world deepen, it becomes everyone for himself, sauve qui peut.

From Salon • May 27, 2019

Discipline was a thing forgotten, and sauve qui peut was the law.

From The Sagebrusher A Story of the West by Hough, Emerson

In Antwerp to-day it was "sauve qui peut"!

From My War Experiences in Two Continents by Salmon, Betty Keays-Young

He heard it all, he saw the confusion, the first signs of sauve qui peut.

From The Laughing Cavalier The Story of the Ancestor of the Scarlet Pimpernel by Orczy, Emmuska Orczy, Baroness

In the demoralisation which had ensued it had been undoubtedly sauve qui peut, only one of the party seeming to think of anyone else.

From Blind Policy by Fenn, George Manville