‖ panier de crabes|ˈpanje də krab| [Fr., lit. basket of crabs.] An internal struggle, a ‘rat race’. 1963Economist 30 Mar. 1218/2 The visitor is..not able to move around in this communist panier de crabes.1979Dœdalus Summer 137 In what the French would term the panier de crabes of sixteenth century Toledan society.