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devil take the hindmost, the

devil take the hindmost, the idiom

Let everyone put his or her own interest first, leaving the unfortunate to their fate. For example, I don't care if she makes it or not—the devil take the hindmost. This expression, first recorded in 1608, probably originated as an allusion to a children's game in which the last (coming “hindmost”) is the loser, and came to mean utter selfishness.

The American Heritage® Dictionary of Idioms by Christine Ammer. Copyright © 2003, 1997 by The Christine Ammer 1992 Trust. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.