dog

A mammal of the family Canidae:

Adjective

  1. Of inferior quality; very bad.
    • Oh man, this game is absolutely dog!

Origin

Clipping of dogshit.

Forms

darg dawg dug doggie doggy doggy woggy doggo

Related

bark canine cynomorphic cynomorphism flea bag

Noun

  1. A mammal of the family Canidae:
    • The dog barked all night long.
    • […] I beg again to state, in my humility, that I am Only a Dog. Such a little dog too. […] I am very white, very woolly, very pretty indeed; covered all over with snowy curls, and having two bright black eyes and a...
    • The preposterous altruism too![…]Resist not evil. It is an insane immolation of self—as bad intrinsically as fakirs stabbing themselves or anchorites warping their spines in caves scarcely large enough for a fair-sized...

    Hypernyms: canid mammal vertebrate animal organism creature

    1. The species Canis familiaris (sometimes designated Canis lupus familiaris), domesticated for thousands of years and of highly variable appearance because of human breeding.

    2. Any member of the family Canidae, including domestic dogs, wolves, coyotes, jackals, and their relatives (extant and extinct).

      • This includes the development of hyena-like bone crushers (Osteoborus and Borophagus), a large bone-crushing hunting dog (Aelurodon), and another borophagine frugivorous dog (Carpocyon). - 1989, John L. Gittleman,...

      Synonyms: canid

      Hypernyms: mammal vertebrate animal organism creature

    3. (often attributive) A male dog, wolf, or fox, as opposed to a bitch or vixen.

      • Entirely disregarding sex, Ch. Searchlight has a beautiful Cocker head, but as he is a dog, his head is too fine and far too much upon the bitchy order. - 1908, Dogdom, volume 9, page 337, column 1:
      • Firstly, he was there to encourage and assist the hounds (a scratch pack – mostly dog-hounds drafted from fox-hound kennels because they were over-sized) […] - 1928, Siegfried Sassoon, Memoirs of a Fox-Hunting Man,...
  2. The meat of this animal, eaten as food.
    • Did you know that they eat dog in parts of Asia?
  3. A person:
    • She’s a real dog.

    1. (slang, derogatory) A dull, unattractive girl or woman.

    2. (slang) A man, guy, chap.

      • You lucky dog!

    3. (derogatory) Someone who is cowardly, worthless, or morally reprehensible.

      • Come back and fight, you dogs!
      • You dirty dog.
      • Blasphemous dog, I wonder that the earth / Doth cease from renting vnderneath thy feete, / To swallow vp those cankred corpes of thine. - 1599, Robert Greene, Alphonsus, King of Aragon, act 3:

    4. (slang) A sexually aggressive man.

      • DJ Paul is a dog; one you do not trust. - 2005, “Stay Fly”, in Jordan Houston, Darnell Carlton, Paul Beauregard, Premro Smith, Marlon Goodwin, David Brown, Willie Hutchinson (lyrics), Most Known Unknown, performed by...
  4. A mechanical device or support:
    • Whenever possible, let the tree support the weight of the chainsaw. Pivot the saw, using the saw's dogs (spikes) as a fulcrum. - 2009, ForestWorks, Chainsaw Operator's Manual, page 41:

    1. Any of various mechanical devices for holding, gripping, or fastening something, particularly with a tooth-like projection.

    2. A click or pallet adapted to engage the teeth of a ratchet wheel, to restrain the back action.

      Synonyms: click pallet pawl ratchet

    3. A metal support for logs in a fireplace.

      • The dogs were too hot to touch.
      • In the great old-fashioned fireplace behind the high iron dogs a log-fire crackled and snapped. - 1902, Arthur Conan Doyle, The Hound of the Baskervilles:

    4. (transport, historical) A double-ended side spike driven through a hole in the flange of a rail on a tramway.

  5. The eighteenth Lenormand card.
  6. A hot dog: a frankfurter, wiener, or similar sausage; or a sandwich made from this.
    • Congressmen gleefully wolfed down every imaginable version of the hot dog – smoked kielbasas, jumbo grillers, Big & Juicy's, kosher dogs and spiced dogs […] - 1994 July 21, Faye Fiore, “Congress relishes another...

    Related: 'dog

  7. An underdog.
  8. Foot; toe.
    • My dogs are barking!
    • You look good in those shoes with your dogs out!
  9. Phone or mobile phone.
    • My dog is dead.
  10. One of the cones used to divide up a racetrack when training horses.
  11. Something that performs poorly.
    • He gives his dog-Mota or dog-Fiji in exchange for Pigeon English. - 1885, Robert H. Codrington, The Melanesian Languages, page 143:
    • That modification turned his Dodge hemi into a dog.

    1. (film) A flop; a film that performs poorly at the box office.

      • Blue was released, and as Redford had predicted, it was a dog. - 1969, Ski, volume 34, number 4, page 121:
      • "When The Alamo was coming out, the word of mouth on it was that it was a dog," Chase said. - 2012, Ronald L. Davis, Duke: The Life and Image of John Wayne:
  12. A cock, as of a gun.
    • To this succeeded the Snaplance ^([sic]), in which a motion was given to the dog, or cock, and a movable plate of steel, called the frizel, or hammer, was placed vertically above the pan to receive the action of the...

Origin

Etymology tree Old English [Term?]? Proto-Germanic *-gô Proto-West Germanic *-gō Old English -ga Old English dogga Middle English dogge English dog Inherited from Middle English dogge (akin to Scots dug), from Old English dogga, docga, of uncertain origin. The original meaning seems to have been a common dog, as opposed to a well-bred one, or something like 'cur', and perhaps later came to be used for stocky dogs. Possibly a pet-form diminutive with suffix -ga (compare frocga (“frog”), *picga (“pig”)), appended to a base *dog-, *doc- of unclear origin and meaning. One possibility is Old English dox (“dark, swarthy”) (compare frocga from frox). Another proposal is that it derives from Proto-West Germanic *dugan (“to be suitable”), the origin of Old English dugan (“to be good, worthy, useful”), English dow, Dutch deugen, German taugen. The theory goes that it could have been an epithet...

Forms

dogs darg dawg dug doggie doggy doggy woggy doggo

Synonyms

taxonomic names: Canis familiaris Canis domesticus Canis familiarus domesticus Canis canis Canis aegyptius Canis familiarus aegyptius Canis melitaeus Canis familiarus melitaeus Canis molossus Canis familiarus molossus Canis saultor Canis familiaris saultor domestic dog hound canine stud sire dogflesh dog meat fragrant meat bloke chap dude fellow

Hypernyms

canid quadruped carnivore mammal vertebrate animal creature canine being landrace pet predator scavenger

Hyponyms

Afghan hound beagle bloodhound borzoi Carolina dog chihuahua coonhound dachshund deerhound elkhound foxhound gazehound German shepherd greyhound hound Inuit Dog Irish wolfhound New Guinea singing dog Norwegian Elkhound otterhound pointer poodle retriever Russian Wolfhound

Related

:Category:Dogs

Derived

a barking dog never bites a barking dog seldom bites African Lion Dog a hit dog will holler aid dog alpha dog alpha-dog Alsatian dog and your little dog too angledog an old dog for a hard road antidog anti-dogger Arctic dog disease arson dog as sick as a dog assistance dog Atlas Mountain Dog attack dog Australian cattle dog avalanche dog Azara's dog Bắc Hà dog badger dog

Verb

  1. To pursue with the intent to catch.

    Synonyms: chase chase after go after pursue tag tail track trail

  2. To follow in an annoying or harassing way.
    • The woman cursed him so that trouble would dog his every step.
    • […] they were discovered in a very improper manner by the husband of the gypsy, who, from jealousy it seems, had kept a watchful eye over his wife, and had dogged her to the place, where he found her in the arms of her...
    • ‘Notwithstanding Mr Maxwell’s acknowledged abilities and energy, he is not in our opinion a person who can be relied upon to exercise proper stewardship of a publicly quoted company.’ These words, from the conclusion of...
  3. To fasten a hatch securely.
    • It is very important to dog down these hatches.
  4. To watch, or participate, in sexual activity in a public place.
    • I admit that I like to dog at my local country park.
    • Lightning [is a] burst of charged particles that lights up the sky and allows onlookers to see who's dogging in the bushes without using a flashlight. - 2012, The Onion Book of Known Knowledge, page 118:
  5. To intentionally restrict one's productivity as employee; to work at the slowest rate that goes unpunished.
    • A surprise inspection of the night shift found that some workers were dogging it.

    Synonyms: soldier goldbrick

  6. To criticize.
    • Harmon Rabb (David James Elliott): Are you dogging Harm's special meatless meatloaf? Sarah MacKenzie (Catherine Bell): Let's put it this way. If you were to make the Harmon Special on this ship, they'd have to unload it...
  7. To divide (a watch) with a comrade.
    • A. We never stood 4 to 8 p.m. watches, sir. We dogged our watches. Q. I suppose that is 6 to 8 p.m., then; it is a little indistinct. I mean the second dog watch. - 1902, Winfield Scott Schley, Record of Proceedings of...
    • Meanwhile, we dogged the watch sections so that both halves of the crew could fetch full sea bags of uniforms and gear […] - 2015, Tom Vetter, 30,000 Leagues Undersea:

Forms

dogs dogging dogged darg dawg dug doggie doggy doggy woggy doggo

Derived

all dogged up