hindmost

Each person must work independently toward their own success, as in competitive situations. The phrase is not only used in reference to men. It's always been every man for himself in this industry. You can't rely on anyone else to help you get ahead. A: "We've got to wait for the rest of the squad!" B: "The squad has been completely scattered by the surprise attack. If any of us are going to make it back to base alive, it's every man for himself."

Each person must work independently toward their own success, as in competitive situations. The phrase is not only used to apply to men. Once we realized that there was only one scoop of ice cream left, It was every man for himself and the devil take the hindmost.

Each person must work independently toward their own success, as in competitive situations. The phrase is sometimes preceded by "Every man for himself." Increasingly, it seems like it's the devil take the hindmost during election season.

Prov. Everyone has to fight for his or her own survival. (You can use this to describe an extremely competitive situation.) At first we tried to help each other study for the exam, but soon it was every man for himself, and the devil take the hindmost. The inventors tried to collaborate, agreeing to share the profits from their invention, but they grew so suspicious of each other that each began to work separately, and devil take the hindmost. When the ship began to sink, it was every man for himself.

Let everyone put his or her own interest first, leaving the unfortunate to their fate. For example, I don't care if she makes it or not-the devil take the hindmost. This expression, first recorded in 1608, probably originated as an allusion to a children's game in which the last (coming "hindmost") is the loser, and came to mean utter selfishness.

Each individual puts his or her own interests foremost. For example, In this company no one helps anyone-it's every man for himself. In Chaucer's day this dictum was stated approvingly, meaning "if you don't look out for yourself, no one else will," but today such selfishness is usually censured. Despite the wording, the term applies to either sex.

If you say the devil take the hindmost, you mean that you should do what is best for you, without considering anyone else. Just get your laughs any way you can and the devil take the hindmost. Note: The whole saying every man for himself and the devil take the hindmost is sometimes also used. We do not believe in the theory of every man for himself and the devil take the hindmost. Note: `Hindmost' is an old word meaning furthest back or last.

Let each person follow self-interest, leaving others to fare as they may.

Too bad for whoever or whatever is last or left behind. The term comes, it is thought, from children’s games like tag, in which the person left behind is the loser. By the sixteenth century it had been transferred to out-and-out selfishness (“Every one for him selfe, and the divel for all,” John Florio, First Fruites, 1578). Beaumont and Fletcher wrote, “What if . . . they run all away, and cry the Devil take the hindmost?” (Philaster, 1608, 5.1).

Everyone looks out for his or her best interest. Originally this phrase expressed approval. It appeared in Chaucer’s The Knight’s Tale (“Ech man for him-self, ther is non other”), implying that if one did not look out for oneself no one else would. It was included in John Heywood’s 1546 proverb collection (“Praie and shifts eche one for himselfs, as he can, every man for himselfs, and God for us all”). This latter turn of phrase (with “God for all”) occurs with minor variations in numerous languages, including French, German, Dutch, Italian, and Spanish. Slightly later versions changed God to the devil (see also devil take the hindmost)—in print by 1574— and it is probably from this locution that the modern meaning of the cliché, describing not-so-admirable selfishness, is derived.