Dictionary

dog eat dog en · ADJ

Pronunciation

• /dɒɡ iːt dɒɡ/ (UK)
• /dɔɡ it dɔɡ/ (US)

Etymology

From dog + eat + dog. Derived from Latin canis caninam non est (“a dog does not eat the flesh of a dog”).

Meanings

1. (idiomatic, informal, not-comparable) Ruthlessly acquisitive or competitive; of a business or other set of circumstances, trying to succeed at the expense of other people.
   • In this company it's dog eat dog. If you don't do better than the rest, you're on the street in next to no time.
   • It is dog eat dog on Las Vegas's world-famous Strip as casino complexes such as MGM Grand and New York New York compete for attention with outlandish gestures like rollercoaster rides and a replica of the Manhattan skyline. 2007 November 11, Zoe Wood, “Tesco has a flutter in Vegas”, in Guardian Unlimited:
   • […] Turpin swore, if he did not deliver immediately he would shoot him through the Head, upon which King fell a Laughing, and said, What! Dog eat Dog? 1739, The Genuine History of the Life of Richard Turpin, page 15:
   • As for the game I came on them, it was dog eat dog, anyway. 1889, William Dena Howells, A Hazard of New Fortunes, page 266:
   • It's a losing game I play / In a dog eat dog, show biz town / I've got a dream of my own / And I carry my own weight / But still they try to drag me down 1978, Chaka Khan, “A Woman in a Man's World”, in Chaka:
   • In that event, as clear as fog, / You'll know what's meant by dog eat dog! 1851 April, The Knickerbocker; Or, New-York Monthly Magazine:
   • dog-eat-dog world
   • He has acted upon the principle of dog eat dog; and has fallen upon his own-brethren of the broad sheet, saying worse of them almost than I ever did; but still not half so bad as they "deserve. 1825 December 10, “To My True Disciples”, in Cobbett's Political Register, page 661:
   • By mutual agreement of the French Captain and ours, and by consent of the officers, considering, as the Captain said, privateers fighting was dog eat dog, and nothing to be got but hard blows and rags […] 1795, Mark Moore, The Memoirs and Adventures of Mark Moore, Late an Officer in the British Navy:

Forms

Relateds

zero-sum

Synonyms

every man for himself · kill or be killed

Translations (13)

fi armoton (harsh and ruthless) · fi karu (harsh and ruthless) · ar قَانُون الغَابَة (harsh and ruthless) · la canis canem edit (harsh and ruthless) · hu farkastörvény (harsh and ruthless) · cmn 狗咬狗 (harsh and ruthless) · fi ankara (harsh and ruthless) · bg безскрупулен (harsh and ruthless) · fr loi de la jungle (harsh and ruthless) · cs podle zákona džungle (harsh and ruthless) · fi häikäilemätön (harsh and ruthless) · fi säälimätön (harsh and ruthless) · el κλέψας του κλέψαντος (harsh and ruthless)