rat race—
1. said of a situation marked by hyperactivity and stress:
- I began to realize that the quality of life mattered more to me than the rat race in the office.
Cf.: mouse race—(a play on “rat race”) a lower-stress lifestyle that results from moving to a smaller community or taking a less demanding job:
- There is a new phenomenon: “the mouse race,” a scaled-down version of the urban rat race that has long-time residents heading for even smaller towns.
2. a fiercely competitive struggle to maintain one’s position:
- A boy’s got to have guts to make his way in this rat race of a modern world.
Note: The expression does not correlate in meaning with the phrase rat run—
1. a maze-like passage by which rats move about:
- The rat-runs had been stopped up, and he killed nearly a hundred rats before he paused.
2. used of smth. resembling narrow labyrinthine passages:
- Hurrying along the rat-runs of the Tube, she slipped her hand into his pocket.
3. (UK coll.) a short cut taken by a motorist on residential side street in order to avoid the heavy traffic on a main route:
- Rat runs are usually taken by drivers who are familiar with the local geography.
rat-racing—(Pilots) a playful form of high-speed flying in which airplanes pursue or attempt to out-maneuver each other:
- I’ve forgotten what we were doing—probably rat-racing … where we chased each other all over the sky.