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Definition 2024


devil_take_the_hindmost

devil take the hindmost

English

Phrase

Devil take the hindmost

  1. An imprecation that everyone should look after their own interests, leaving those who cannot cope to whatever fate befalls them
    • 1843, Thomas Carlyle, Past and Present, book 3, ch. VI, Two Centuries
      And [we] coldly see the all-conquering valiant Sons of Toil sit enchanted, by the million, in their Poor-Law Bastille, as if this were Nature’s Law; — mumbling to ourselves some vague janglement of Laissez-faire, Supply-and-demand, Cash-payment the one nexus of man to man: Free-trade, Competition, and Devil take the hindmost, our latest Gospel yet preached!
    • 1915, W.S. Maugham, "Of Human Bondage", chapter CVIII:
      "Oh, don't talk to me about your socialists, I've got no patience with them," she cried. "It only means that another lot of lazy loafers will make a good thing out of the working classes. My motto is, leave me alone; I don't want anyone interfering with me; I'll make the best of a bad job, and the devil take the hindmost."