cutthroat
adjEtymology From cut + throat.
1
Involving the cutting of throats.
2
Of or relating to a card game where everyone plays for him or herself rather than playing with a partner.
- He found that playing cutthroat Spades was much more difficult than playing with a partner.
3
Ruthlessly competitive, dog-eat-dog.
- Law is a cutthroat business, you always have to look out to see who is trying to outdo you.
- More specifically, Scrabblers are diehard, competitive, and occasionally cutthroat players who treat the game like it's chess or baseball...2010, Kate Stevens, Freak Nation, page 159:
1 more example
- While these esports are often framed as battles of mental strategies and mechanical skills, how players juggle their hundreds, or thousands, of simultaneously ticking clocks and timers defines their ability to succeed in cutthroat competitions.2023 December 1, Evelynn Kersting, “GAMES AND TIME”, in University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, page 9, archived from the original on 06 Jun 2025:
- Related terms
- cutthroat eel