Word.ws English Dictionary

crab mentality

crab mentality noun: a phenomenon in which a person or a group of people attempt to hinder the progress or success of others, even if such success does not directly affect their own well-being.

Noun

crab mentality (plural crab mentalities)

  1. (idiomatic) A phenomenon in which a person or a group of people attempt to hinder the progress or success of others, even if such success does not directly affect their own well-being.

crab mentality meaning in Tagalog, Malay and Indonesian

crab mentality in Tagalog

if I can't have it neither can you
isip-alimango, isip talangka, kaisipang talangka

crab mentality in Malay

if I can't have it neither can you
mentaliti ketam

crab mentality in Indonesian

if I can't have it neither can you
mentalitas kepiting

Synonyms of crab mentality

Forms of crab mentality

pluralcrab mentalities

Origin of crab mentality

From the metaphor in which a pot of crabs, one crab attempts to escape over the side, but is relentlessly pulled down by the others in the pot.

Questions about crab mentality

What does crab mentality mean?
Crab mentality means a phenomenon in which a person or a group of people attempt to hinder the progress or success of others, even if such success does not directly affect their own well-being.
What is crab mentality in Tagalog?
Crab mentality in Tagalog is isip-alimango, isip talangka, kaisipang talangka. See Crab mentality meaning in Tagalog.
What part of speech is crab mentality?
Crab mentality is a noun.
What is the plural of crab mentality?
The plural of crab mentality is crab mentalities.

Words near crab mentality in the dictionary

  1. crab louse
  2. crab market
  3. crab markets
  4. crab meat
  5. crab mentalities
  6. crab mentality
  7. Crab Nebula
  8. crab oil
  9. crab plover
  10. crab plovers
  11. crab puff

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: crab mentality (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-au-crab mentality.ogg.

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