Meaning of red in tooth and claw | Babel Free

Definitions

Characterized by uncaring, amoral ruthlessness or brutality, especially of a kind seen as reflecting the way of things in nature.

not-comparable

Examples

“We love nature, but nature doesn't love us. One night in the Amazon rainforest will show us that nature is red in tooth and claw.”

“And he, shall he, Man, her last work, who seem’d so fair, […] Who trusted God was love indeed And love Creation’s final law— Tho’ Nature, red in tooth and claw With ravine, shriek’d against his creed— […] Be blown about the desert dust, Or seal’d within the iron hills?”

CEFR level