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rat race

noun Informal.

any exhausting, unremitting, and usually competitive activity or routine, especially a pressured urban working life spent trying to get ahead with little time left for leisure, contemplation, etc.

Origin:
1935–40, Americanism

Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2012.
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Rat race is always a great word to know.

So is ninnyhammer. Does it mean:

the offspring of a zebra and a donkey.

a fool or simpleton; ninny.

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Collins

World English Dictionary

rat race

—n
	a continual routine of hectic competitive activity: working in the City is a real rat race

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 10th Edition
2009 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009
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Slang Dictionary

rat race definition

n.
a dull and repetitive situation; a dull and unrewarding job. (See also daily grind.) : I am really tired of this rat race—day after day. , She dropped out of the rat race and moved to Vermont, where she opened a barber shop.

Dictionary of American Slang and Colloquial Expressions by Richard A. Spears.Fourth Edition.
Copyright 2007. Published by McGraw Hill.
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American Heritage

Idioms & Phrases

rat race

Fierce competition to maintain or improve one's position in the workplace or social life. For example, You may not realize what a rat race it is to get research grants. This term presumably alludes to the rat's desperate struggle for survival. [Colloquial; first half of 1900s]

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"I would be a winner because I was a loser! That's right. I dream of failure every night of my life, and that's my secret. To make it in this rat race you have to dream of failing every day. I mean, that is reality."

-Donald Freed

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