The most common and most likely answer to this crossword clue is the 3 plus 4 letter word RAT RACE
I've seen this crossword clue in The Daily Telegraph
R
A
T
R
A
C
E
More clues leading to the result RAT RACE
- Sketch by artist depicts hurly-burly of competitive work
- People possessing paintings about continued struggle to get on
- Follow after troops rush to advance
- Scramble to get on with artist above suspicion
- Desert marathon perhaps an exhausting grind
- Soldiers to pursue struggle for survival
- Attention surrounding vehicle turning up for daily grind
- The Gunners draw contest for dominance
- Suspicion after artist in continual struggle
- Artist to sketch undesirable existence
Buddy explains!
The straight part
We know that "struggle to survive" is the straight/definition part of the clue. The straight part is often a synonym or definition, in this case struggle to survive = rat race.The cryptic/wordplay part
In cryptic crossword there's often an wordplay/cryptic part as well.This part involves a more complex hint, such as an anagram, homophone, hidden word, etc.
Sadly, We don't have an explanation for this specific crossword clue yet.