panier de crabesn.
/ˌpanjeɪ də ˈkrab/, U.S. /ˈˌpɑnjeɪ də ˈkrɑb/ literary.
An arena of fierce or ruthless rivalry; a rat race; (also) a dangerously controversial topic.
ΘΚΠ
society > society and the community > customs, values, and civilization > [noun] > struggle to maintain position in life or work
rat race1937
panier de crabes1951
1951 ELH 18 255 One shudders a little at reopening the question of the hero, that panier de crabes of Shakespearean criticism.
1963 Economist 30 Mar. 1218/2 The visitor is..not able to move around in this communist panier de crabes.
1979 Dædalus Summer 137 In what the French would term the panier de crabes of sixteenth century Toledan society.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, March 2005; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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n.1951- to tell fortunes
- to tell great price of
- to tell great price upon
- to tell her own
- to tell his own
- to tell howdy
- to tell it like it is
- to tell little price of
- to tell little price upon
- to tell noses
- to tell off
- to tell on
- to tell one's conscience
- to tell one's mind
- to tell one's tale
- to tell or count one's beads
- to tell out
- to tell out of
- to tell over
- to tell price of
- to tell price upon
- to tell say the truth and shame the devil
- to tell scorn
- to tell short of
- to tell someone where he or she gets off