🗓️ Idiom: Dog-Eat-Dog World (n)
💬 Meaning
- A very competitive and aggressive environment.
- A situation where people will do anything to succeed, even if it hurts others.
🧠 Example Sentences
- The tech industry can be a dog-eat-dog world. Only the strongest survive.
- In a dog-eat-dog world, you need to protect your ideas and work fast.
- Some people don’t enjoy the dog-eat-dog world of high-pressure sales.
🏛️ Origin
This idiom comes from the old idea that even dogs might fight and hurt each other in a harsh world. It has been used since the 1800s to describe environments where people fight to get ahead, often with little care for fairness or teamwork.
📝 Practice Exercises
1. Fill in the blank:
Startups move quickly, and it can feel like a __________ where only the fastest survive.
Answer
dog-eat-dog world
2. Choose the correct meaning of “dog-eat-dog world”:
A) A very friendly place
B) A slow and quiet industry
C) A highly competitive and aggressive environment
D) A team with strong support
Answer
C) A highly competitive and aggressive environment
3. Rewrite the sentence using the idiom:
“The company culture is very competitive, and people don’t always help each other.” → Change the sentence using: dog-eat-dog world
Answer
The company feels like a dog-eat-dog world.
ℹ️ Other Useful Pages
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👉 Competition and Risk Management Idioms
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Rob is a CELTA qualified English teacher with 15 years of international experience. He has a BSc and PGDip from Loughborough and St Andrews universities in the UK. He has taught in Thailand and Saudi Arabia and now works with professionals worldwide.
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