dog
/dɒɡ
/- Canis familiaris, family Canidae (the dog family); probably domesticated from the wolf in the Mesolithic period. The dog family also includes the wolves, coyotes, jackals, and foxes.
- Her size makes it impractical to use her as a patrol dog, but her sense of smell is so keen she can detect even trace amounts of drugs.
- Domesticated dogs arose from wolves that somehow became accustomed to living among people.
Synonyms
- Teufel-hunden were originally known as the wild, ferocious mountain dogs of Bavarian folklore.
- In most mammals, adult play is rare, but it is common in dolphins, members of the dog family, great apes and, of course, humans.
- The male dog otter measured 41.5 inches in length with a girth of 26 inches.
- A male, or dog, otter can range over six to eight miles, far further than a female.
- A member of the waterworks department shot a fine dog otter on the lower Rivington reservoir.
- People went to football in the afternoon, went to the dogs in the evening and took the train home.
- By the way, you can keep the pun you wretched journalistic dogs.
- He got up with his hand wrapped around her little waist… that lucky dog!
- If that next race is the bottom of the new grade, this lucky dog might have a chance of stumbling into the money again.
- It's true - I'm a lucky dog.
- The schools are good so there's no need to work like a dog to pay school fees.
- Do you think this helps explain why today's corporate bosses are treating American workers like dogs?
- They were treated as dogs, they were hungry, and the goddess of justice refused to review their plight.
- Move too early, and you might end up backing a dog of a technology.
- If he understands that it's a dog of a deal, why do you think he'd consider supporting it?
- With a lead clenched less than firmly in his sweaty palm, he then contrived to play a dog of a game in the middle of the second set.
- When you have a leader of his passion and effectiveness, you have a media that's very much tracking him and dogging him and trying to find what they can about him.
- He laughs about how the police are still - and probably forever - on his tail, even dogging him on his recent US book tour.
- Since Sally was the only member of the group who would acknowledge Yap's existence, the little gnome dogged her every step, chattering excitedly.
Synonyms
- For the last 5-1/2 years this process has been dogged by problem after problem.
- The school - which has a police officer stationed on site - has been on special measures for five years and has been dogged by problems.
- The system has been dogged with problems since it came on line in 1999.
- He entered the season with a reputation for dogging it when he wasn't the primary receiver.
- He loved the game and didn't mind ragging on the players when they were dogging it.
- The Americans actually were dogging it late in the third as the Germans led 67-65, but Pierce sank a 10-spot on their heads as a part of a 12-0 run to close the quarter.
- Its convex shape and dogging mechanism made it look as though it were an enlarged part of a submarine, scavenged from some terrestrial scrap yard and grafted onto the bulkhead.
- There was a muted boom as the Captain closed and dogged the ships inner lock shut behind us.
- She places the child inside the engineering space before stepping through herself and dogging the hatch behind her.
Phrases
dog and bone
dog-and-pony show
dog eat dog
a dog's age
dogs bark, but the caravans move on
the dog's bollocks
a dog's dinner (or breakfast)
a dog's life
the dogs of war
dressed (up) like a dog's dinner
every dog has his (or its) day
give a dog a bad name and hang him
go to the dogs
like a dog with two tails
not a dog's chance
put on the dog
throw someone to the dogs
you can't teach an old dog new tricks
why keep a dog and bark yourself?
Derivatives
doglike
/ adjective ...- Today the slender doglike creatures with pointy ears and bushy tails can be found in every state except Hawaii.
- Somewhat doglike in appearance, he had greyish-brown fur, a short, boxy muzzle, and a tiny stub of a tail, but also had long, pointy ears, a small button nose, and royal blue hair on his head.
- He snarled, showing off his doglike fangs in a rage.
Origin
Old English docga, of unknown origin.
The word dog appears only once in surviving Old English literature, and until the Middle Ages hound was the ordinary word for a dog. The low status of dogs is shown by phrases like a dog's life, not have a dog's chance, and to treat someone like a dog. For something to go to the dogs is certainly undesirable, but even such luckless animals might sometimes get hold of a tasty treat or a warm bed, for every dog has its day. Dogs can be savage, and dog eat dog signifies a situation of fierce competition. This rather chillingly makes reference to, and reverses, the proverb dog does not eat dog, which dates back to the mid 16th century in English and has a precursor in Latin canis caninam non est, ‘a dog does not eat dog's flesh’. Every dog is allowed one bite is based on the rule, probably dating from the 17th century, by which an animal's owner was not liable for harm done by it unless he knew of its vicious tendencies. A dog in the manger, ‘a person inclined to prevent others having or using things that they do not want or need themselves’, derives from a fable in which a dog lies in a manger to prevent the ox and horse from eating hay. People have invoked the idea since the 16th century. A change in the status of dogs is found in the idea of the dog being man's best friend, which seems to be a Victorian one, a change emphasized by love me, love my dog. See also bollock, canary, dinner, hair, havoc