English Explanatory Dictionary

law of the jungle

English dictionary entry

Meanings

noun
  1. A putative law dictating that one serves one's own interest to the extent that one can, in any situation where legal authority is absent or generally ignored; self-interested behaviour that emerges in the absence of law; lawlessness.
  2. Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see law, jungle.

Pronunciation

En-au-law of the jungle.ogg

Word forms

law of the jungle

Etymology

Introduced by Rudyard Kipling in his book, The Jungle Book (1894), in which he used the term in the literal sense of a legal code governing the behavior of his anthropomorphized animals in an Indian jungle. Note also the (possibly derived) colloquial sense of jungle (“a place where people behave ruthlessly, unconstrained by law or morality”).

Related words

anything goes dog eat dog every man for himself free-for-all law of nature red in tooth and claw survival of the fittest
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