Crabs in the bucket

People who are stuck in bad situations. Who drag you down with them

Comes from what happens when u place crabs in a bucket. One trys to escape the others grab their legs and try to escape so it ends up they all never get out.

Used to describe a person (or subculture) that does everything in it's power to destroy the ambitions of those among them who wish to improve themselves.

It comes from the story of catching crabs in a bucket. When you catch a crab and place him in a bucket, the first thing he'll try to do is escape. Now, if you put two crabs in a bucket (hence the plural form of 'Crabs in a Bucket') and place them in there together, as soon as one tries to climb up out of the bucket the other will grab the escaping crab by the legs and try to escape itself, to which the process gets repeated to the point where NO crabs end up escaping.

Something that one will say in reference to society, that only makes sense to .5% of humankind.

"Crabs in a bucket" is the term to describe a male tea bagging his partner while his genital area is infested with "crabs" or pubic lice.

A crab bucket is what it is: crabs in a bucket. However, what happens in the bucket full of crabs is what makes it a famous saying.

When a single crab is put into a lidless bucket, they surely can and will escape. However, when more than one share a bucket, none can get out. If one crab elevates themself above all, the others will grab this crab and drag'em back down to share the mutual fate of the rest of the group.

Crab bucket syndrome is often used to describe social situations where one person is trying to better themself and others in the community attempt to pull them back down. Also often used in describing the ghettos of America (or anywhere, for that matter).

Any place where people hate being there, but are too scared, or guilted to move on, or organize, or to speak honestly about source of the problem. Where everyone pulls down someone who does something to get out and calls them deserter or quitter because they don't want to be lonely. Most likely a place highly populated with mouthbreathers.

2) shithole, hotel california (you can check out any time you like, but you cant never leave), facebook, small town, abusive relationship, college, Dilbertesque corpo, military

3) Originated from phenomenon of real life behavior of crabs caught in a fishing basket who could technically get out, but the ones near the edges are being pulled down by the ones at the bottom of the basket, hence noone leaves and everyone hates being there

When a crab is put into a bucket, it will try to escape. As soon as another crab is placed into the bucket, they will start fighting one another and get so caught up in it that they forget about escaping. Basically, to get caught in the 'crab bucket' is to be working hard on something, then one person gets distracted and starts watching YouTube or something stupid, and then another person starts, and then by the end of it, everyone that was working is now distracted and nothing gets done.