Dog-eat-dog means ruthlessly competitive, with everyone out for themselves. The idiom describes fields with fierce competition, where people are ready to harm others to succeed: show business, finance, the fight for good jobs. The expression is fairly harsh. It fits conversation, but in an essay fiercely competitive sounds more neutral.
When would you say dog-eat-dog?
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a dog-eat-dog + world/business/industry; it's a dog-eat-dog world
- Advertising is a dog-eat-dog business, and small agencies often close within a year.
- My dad always said it's a dog-eat-dog world, so you have to fight for what you want.
- Getting a place at a top medical school can feel like a dog-eat-dog competition.
What changed
First versionFinance is a dog-eats-dog world, and nobody helps beginners.
RevisionFinance is a dog-eat-dog world, and nobody helps beginners.
Dog eats dog seems logical: one dog eats another, so the verb needs -s. But dog-eat-dog works as a single adjective before a noun, and its form is frozen: no -s and with hyphens. Only the -s was removed in the correction.
A similar expression is the rat race: an exhausting race for money and career. Dog-eat-dog stresses how ruthless the rivals are, while the rat race stresses how tiring the endless race is: He left the rat race and opened a small café by the sea.
Your turn
In the fashion industry, designers copy each other's ideas and nobody trusts anyone: it's a ___ world.
Show the answer
dog-eat-dog — Designers copy each other's ideas and nobody trusts anyone, so it is a world of fierce competition. The idiom's form is frozen: dog-eat-dog. Dog-eats-dog is a common mistake: in this idiom, the verb never takes -s.
Describe a field or profession where, in your view, people fight hard for success. Name it and give one example of that fight.
Professional football is a dog-eat-dog world: every season, dozens of young players compete for a single place in the team.
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