devil take the hindmost, the

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.

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.

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).