law of the jungle

noun

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”).

Definitions

1
A putative law dictating that one serves one's own interest to the extent that one can,…
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.
- 1983, The Law of the Sea, School of Law, Duke University, page 57, To bring order to this law of the jungle at sea was a particular reason for the Law of the Sea Conference, especially insofar as the United States was concerned.
2
Used other than figuratively or idiomatically
Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see law, jungle.
- The Law of the Jungle — which is by far the oldest law in the world — has arranged for almost every kind of accident that may befall the Jungle People, till now its code is as perfect as time and custom can make it.

The neighborhood

Vish — recursive loop

No curated loop yet for law of the jungle. Loops are being traced one word at a time while the ingestion pipeline matures.

sense glosses and etymology drawn from English Wiktionary · source · CC-BY-SA