crawl over each other

English

Pronunciation

• Audio (General Australian):

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Verb

crawl over each other (no third-person singular simple present, present participle crawling over each other, simple past and past participle crawled over each other)

1. (idiomatic, reciprocal) To compete with others eagerly or fiercely in pursuit of the same goal(s).
   • 1984, Og Mandino, The Choice, Bantam, published 1986, →ISBN, page 110:

     We crawl over each other in our race for power, wealth, and fame.

   • 1998, Kathleen Tracy, Jerry Seinfeld: The Entire Domain, Carol Publishing Group, →ISBN, page 133:

     By the time "The Contest" was repeated on April 29, 1993, the first night of that year's May sweeps, Seinfeld was a Top Ten show on Thursday nights, and advertisers were crawling over each other to sign up.

   • 2005, David Cox, Sign Wars: The Culture Jammers Strike Back, UoM Custom Book Centre, →ISBN, page 206:

     […] game shows like Survivor, where young, attractive (mainly white, but definitely affluent or unthreateningly petit-bourgeois) people are invited to pretend that they are alone in the 'wilderness' and must crawl over each other for access to food, shelter and sex.