jungle

asphalt jungle

An overcrowded, unsafe or crime-ridden urban environment or city, characterized by the congestion of large buildings and roads. Primarily heard in US, South Africa. After 10 years living in that asphalt jungle, I'm looking forward to being in a place with a bit of grass and friendly neighbors.
See also: jungle

blackboard jungle

1. Schools viewed as a broad group or category. The term implies that they have many pitfalls and difficulties. After working in the blackboard jungle for 20 years, retirement is much more appealing than continuing to teach multiplication tables.
2. A school in which the students are particularly unruly. Teachers keep quitting because that school is a blackboard jungle. You have a good chance of being physically harmed if you teach there.
See also: jungle

concrete jungle

An overcrowded, unsafe and/or crime-ridden urban environment or city, characterized by the congestion of large buildings and roads. After years living in that concrete jungle, I'm looking forward to being in a place with a bit of grass and friendly neighbors.
See also: concrete, jungle

hear (something) on the jungle telegraph

To hear or learn a something through an informal means of communication, especially gossip. Primarily heard in UK. I heard on the jungle telegraph that Stacy and Mark are getting a divorce! A: "How do you know the company is going bust?" B: "I heard it on the jungle telegraph."
See also: hear, jungle, on, telegraph

it's a jungle out there

1. Some place is dangerous. Be careful when you go out tonight—it's a jungle out there!
2. The world is characterized by ruthless behavior and competition. All the top students are competing to be valedictorian—it's really a jungle out there. Don't expect this kind of consideration in the real world—it's a jungle out there.
See also: jungle, out, there

jungle breath

slang Particularly foul-smelling breath. I know I tend to have jungle breath when I wake up, so I usually brush my teeth before I do anything else. My date was really attractive and very funny, but good lord, she had horrible jungle breath.
See also: breath, jungle

jungle juice

slang Any improvised mixture of large amounts various hard liquors combined with small amounts of fruit juice. Everyone was getting messed up on the giant bowl of jungle juice they had sitting on the kitchen table. Jungle juice? No thanks, I don't feel like dying of a hangover tomorrow.
See also: juice, jungle

jungle mouth

slang Particularly foul-smelling breath. I know I tend to have jungle mouth when I wake up, so I usually brush my teeth before I do anything else. My date was really attractive and very funny, but good lord, she had horrible jungle mouth.
See also: jungle, mouth

jungle telegraph

An informal means of communication or information, especially gossip. Used most commonly in the phrase "hear (something) on the jungle telegraph." (Analogous to "hear (something) through the grapevine.") Primarily heard in UK. I heard on the jungle telegraph that Stacy and Mark are getting a divorce! A: "How do you know the company is going bust?" B: "I heard it on the jungle telegraph."
See also: jungle, telegraph

jungled up

old-fashioned slang Having particular living arrangements or being in particular accommodations, especially temporarily. I followed your hired muscle, Tommy, and they led me straight to where you've been jungled up for the last two months! We've been jungled up in this motel room for the last month while the house is being renovated.
See also: jungle, up

king of the jungle

The lion, especially in cultural or artistic depictions. (Usually a misnomer, as lions typically inhabit deserts or dry forests, as opposed to jungles.) Engraved in striking marble, the king of the jungle stands sentinel over this ancient arena. The king of the jungle is the symbol for the zodiac sign Leo.
See also: jungle, king, of

law of the jungle

The idea that the strongest or most merciless in a society or group will survive. The phrase comes from Rudyard Kipling's The Jungle Book. I refuse to serve as mayor without compassion, so this city will not operate according to the law of the jungle.
See also: jungle, law, of

rubber jungle

An aviation term among pilots and airline crew for the effect created when the rubber oxygen masks in a commercial aircraft deploy from its ceiling. Everyone started to panic when the rubber jungle appeared, so I had to reassure them that it was just a minor hiccup and that we were all perfectly safe.
See also: jungle, rubber
Farlex Dictionary of Idioms.

It's a jungle out there.

The real world is severe.; It's hard to get by in everyday life. A: Gee, people are so rude in this town. B: Yup, it's a jungle out there.
See also: jungle, out, there
McGraw-Hill Dictionary of American Idioms and Phrasal Verbs.

law of the jungle

Survival of the strongest, as in The recent price war among airlines was governed by the law of the jungle. This term, alluding to the jungle as a place devoid of ethics where brutality and self-interest reign, was first used by Rudyard Kipling in The Jungle Book (1894).
See also: jungle, law, of
The American Heritage® Dictionary of Idioms by Christine Ammer.

the law of the jungle

You use the law of the jungle to describe a situation where people who are strong and do not care about harming others are most successful. The streets are subject to the law of the jungle and policing has been entrusted to private law enforcement agencies. She strongly criticized the president for what she described as his attempt to rule by the law of the jungle. Note: This phrase became popular from `The Jungle Book' by Rudyard Kipling (1894). `The law of the Jungle, which never orders anything without a reason, forbids every beast to eat Man, except when he is killing to show his children how to...'. Instead of encouraging aggression, this law actually places limits on the use of violence in the animal kingdom.
See also: jungle, law, of
Collins COBUILD Idioms Dictionary, 3rd ed.

blackboard jungle

a school, or schools in general, with violent and uncontrollable pupils.
See also: jungle

the law of the jungle

the principle that those who are strong and apply ruthless self-interest will be most successful.
1989 Bessie Head Tales of Tenderness & Power And at the beer tank the law of the jungle prevailed, the stronger shoving the weaker.
See also: jungle, law, of
Farlex Partner Idioms Dictionary

the ˌlaw of the ˈjungle

a situation in which people are prepared to harm other people in order to succeed: The police daren’t go into certain parts of the city. It’s the law of the jungle in there. In this business it’s the law of the jungle.
See also: jungle, law, of
Farlex Partner Idioms Dictionary

asphalt jungle

n. the paved landscape of the city; the city viewed as a savage place. I don’t look forward to spending the rest of my days in an asphalt jungle.
See also: jungle

jungle

n. a vicious area of confusion; the real world. The place is a jungle out there. You’ll grow up fast out there.

jungle juice

n. homemade liquor; any strong liquor. This jungle juice will knock you for a loop.
See also: juice, jungle

jungle mouth

n. a case of very bad breath; breath like the rotting jungle floor. My husband woke up with jungle mouth, and I could hardly stand to be around him.
See also: jungle, mouth

jungled

mod. alcohol intoxicated; affected by jungle juice. He was jungled before he came here.
See also: jungle
McGraw-Hill's Dictionary of American Slang and Colloquial Expressions
See also:
  • asphalt jungle
  • concrete jungle
  • gapers' block
  • ridden hard and put away wet
  • ridden hard and put up wet
  • fall between the cracks
  • the common cold
  • gangsta rap
  • get-rich-quick
  • a cry for help
References in classic literature
Wretched as the Jungle People were, even Hathi could not help chuckling; while Mowgli, lying on his elbows in the warm water, laughed aloud, and beat up the scum with his feet.
Now and again they asked some question of the Eaters of Flesh across the river, but all the news was bad, and the roaring hot wind of the Jungle came and went between the rocks and the rattling branches, and scattered twigs, and dust on the water.
Second Jungle Book
Late in the afternoon, as she was about to cross a little clearing, she was startled at the sight of a huge ape coming from the jungle upon the opposite side.
Her eyes moved back and forth between the apes and the edge of the jungle toward which they were gazing until at last she perceived the object of their halt and the thing that they awaited.
The Beasts of Tarzan
Much there was which Tarzan could make Tantor understand, and though the small talk of the wild was beyond the great, gray dreadnaught of the jungle, he stood with blinking eyes and gently swaying trunk as though drinking in every word of it with keenest appreciation.
At his bidding, Tantor would come from a great distance--as far as his keen ears could detect the shrill and piercing summons of the ape-man--and when Tarzan was squatted upon his head, Tantor would lumber through the jungle in any direction which his rider bade him go.
Jungle Tales of Tarzan
It was as though the beast had suffered himself to be brought from his jungle home and exhibited before thousands of curious spectators for the sole purpose of searching out his long lost friend and master, and, having found him, considered further mingling with the common herd of humans unnecessary.
As chance would have it, Tarzan's son overheard his father relating to the boy's mother the steps he was taking to return Akut safely to his jungle home, and having overheard he begged them to bring the ape home that he might have him for a play-fellow.
Son Of Tarzan
The night passed without incident, and then, telling his new friends that he would return as soon as possible with help, Tolpec, taking a small supply of food with him, set out through the jungle again.
Tom Swift In The Land Of Wonders
Here and there the brilliant rays penetrated to earth, but for the most part they only served to accentuate the Stygian blackness of the jungle's depths.
Like some huge phantom, Kala swung noiselessly from tree to tree; now running nimbly along a great branch, now swinging through space at the end of another, only to grasp that of a farther tree in her rapid progress toward the scene of the tragedy her knowledge of jungle life told her was being enacted a short distance before her.
Tarzan of the Apes
Where he had fallen beneath the spring of the lion the witch-doctor lay, torn and bleeding, unable to drag himself away and watched the terrific battle between these two lords of the jungle. His sunken eyes glittered and his wrinkled lips moved over toothless gums as he mumbled weird incantations to the demons of his cult.
And came the time once more when the witch-doctor no longer doubted the outcome of the duel, yet his first judgment was reversed, for now he knew that the jungle god would slay Simba and the old black was even more terrified of his own impending fate at the hands of the victor than he had been by the sure and sudden death which the triumphant lion would have meted out to him.
Tarzan and the Jewels of Opar
Father Wolf listened, and below in the valley that ran down to a little river he heard the dry, angry, snarly, singsong whine of a tiger who has caught nothing and does not care if all the jungle knows it.
The Law of the Jungle, which never orders anything without a reason, forbids every beast to eat Man except when he is killing to show his children how to kill, and then he must hunt outside the hunting grounds of his pack or tribe.
Jungle Book