dog

Noun

dog (countable and uncountable, plural dogs)

1. A mammal of the family Canidae:
   2. The species Canis familiaris (sometimes designated Canis lupus familiaris), domesticated for thousands of years and of highly variable appearance because of human breeding.
      • 1918, W[illiam] B[abington] Maxwell, chapter XVI, in The Mirror and the Lamp, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, →OCLC:

        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 dog.

      • 1963, Margery Allingham, chapter 19, in The China Governess: A Mystery, London: Chatto & Windus, →OCLC:

        When Timothy and Julia hurried up the staircase to the bedroom floor, where a considerable commotion was taking place, Tim took Barry Leach with him. […]. The captive made no resistance and came not only quietly but in a series of eager little rushes like a timid dog on a choke chain.

      The dog barked all night long.

   3. Any member of the family Canidae, including domestic dogs, wolves, coyotes, jackals, foxes, and their relatives (extant and extinct); canid.
      • 1989, John L. Gittleman, Carnivore Behavior, Ecology, and Evolution, page 561:

        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).

   4. (often attributive) A male dog, wolf, or fox, as opposed to a bitch or vixen.
      • 1908, Dogdom, volume 9, page 337, column 1:

        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.

      • 1928, Siegfried Sassoon, Memoirs of a Fox-Hunting Man, Penguin, published 2013, page 149:

        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) […]

2. (uncountable) The meat of this animal, eaten as food.

   Did you know that they eat dog in parts of Asia?

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

      She’s a real dog.

   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.

      • 1599, Robert Greene, Alphonsus, King of Aragon, act 3:

        Blasphemous dog, I wonder that the earth / Doth cease from renting vnderneath thy feete, / To swallow vp those cankred corpes of thine.

      • 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, 2 Kings 8:13, column 1:

        And Hazael ſaid, But what, is thy ſeruant a dogge, that he ſhould doe this great thing?

      • 1886 October – 1887 January, H[enry] Rider Haggard, She: A History of Adventure, London: Longmans, Green, and Co., published 1887, →OCLC:

        [A]t last Mahomed's stood straight up upon its vertebræ, and glared at me through its empty eyeholes, and cursed me with its grinning jaws, because I, a dog of a Christian, disturbed the last sleep of a true believer.

   4. (slang) A sexually aggressive man.
      • 2005, “Stay Fly”, in Jordan Houston, Darnell Carlton, Paul Beauregard, Premro Smith, Marlon Goodwin, David Brown, Willie Hutchinson (lyrics), Most Known Unknown‎, performed by Three 6 Mafia (featuring Young Buck, 8 Ball, and MJG), Sony BMG:

        DJ Paul is a dog; one you do not trust.

4. A mechanical device or support:
   1. Any of various mechanical devices for holding, gripping, or fastening something, particularly with a tooth-like projection.
      • 2009, ForestWorks, Chainsaw Operator's Manual, page 41:

        Whenever possible, let the tree support the weight of the chainsaw. Pivot the saw, using the saw's dogs (spikes) as a fulcrum.

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

      Synonyms: click, pallet, pawl, ratchet

   4. A metal support for logs in a fireplace.

      The dogs were too hot to touch.

      • 1902, Arthur Conan Doyle, The Hound of the Baskervilles:

        In the great old-fashioned fireplace behind the high iron dogs a log-fire crackled and snapped.

   5. (transport, historical) A double-ended side spike driven through a hole in the flange of a rail on a tramway.
5. (cartomancy) The eighteenth Lenormand card.
6. A hot dog: a frankfurter, wiener, or similar sausage; or a sandwich made from this.

   Alternative form: 'dog

   • 1994 July 21, Faye Fiore, “Congress relishes another franking privilege: Meat lobby puts on the dog with exclusive luncheon for lawmakers – experts on pork”, in Los Angeles Times‎:

     Congressmen gleefully wolfed down every imaginable version of the hot dog – smoked kielbasas, jumbo grillers, Big & Juicy's, kosher dogs and spiced dogs […]

7. (poker slang) An underdog.
8. (slang, chiefly in the plural) Foot; toe.

   My dogs are barking! ― My feet hurt!

   You look good in those shoes with your dogs out! ― You look good wearing shoes that show your toes!

9. (Cockney rhyming slang) (from "dog and bone") Phone or mobile phone.

   My dog is dead.

   My mobile-phone battery has run out of charge and is no longer able to function.

10. One of the cones used to divide up a racetrack when training horses.
11. (informal) Something that performs poorly.
    • 1885, Robert H. Codrington, The Melanesian Languages, page 143:

      He gives his dog-Mota or dog-Fiji in exchange for Pigeon English.

    That modification turned his Dodge hemi into a dog.

    1. (film) A flop; a film that performs poorly at the box office.
       • 1969, Ski, volume 34, number 4, page 121:

         Blue was released, and as Redford had predicted, it was a dog.

       • 2012, Ronald L. Davis, Duke: The Life and Image of John Wayne:

         "When The Alamo was coming out, the word of mouth on it was that it was a dog," Chase said.

12. (firearms, archaic) A cock, as of a gun.
    • 1832, The Edinburgh Encyclopaedia, volume 10, page 164:

      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 flint.

13. (preceded by definite article) A dance having a brief vogue in the 1960s in which the actions of a dog were mimicked.
    • 1964, “What'd I Say”, Ray Charles (lyrics), performed by Elvis Presley:

      Hmm, see the girl with the red dress on
      She can do the dog all night long.

    • 1964, “C'mon and Swim”, Thomas Coman and Sylvester Stewart (Sly Stone) (lyrics), performed by Bobby Freeman:

      Just like the dog but not so low
      Like the hully gully but not so slow
      Now baby swim, baby do the swim.

    • 1967, Trudy Baker, Rachel Jones, Donald Bain (uncredited), Coffee, Tea, or Me?: The Uninhibited Memoirs of Two Airline Stewardesses, New York: Bantam Books, page 173:

      We had a lovely dance—luckily it was a slow number. I don't think Mr. Lincoln would have been up to the dog or a fast twist.

Verb

dog (third-person singular simple present dogs, present participle dogging, simple past and past participle dogged)

1. (transitive) To pursue with the intent to catch.

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

2. (transitive) To follow in an annoying or harassing way.

   The woman cursed him so that trouble would dog his every step.

   • 1749, Henry Fielding, The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling, volume (please specify |volume=I to VI), London: A[ndrew] Millar, […], →OCLC:

     […] 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 gallant.

   • 2012 January, Michael Riordan, “Tackling Infinity”, in American Scientist‎, volume 100, number 1, archived from the original on 30 April 2013, page 86:

     Some of the most beautiful and thus appealing physical theories, including quantum electrodynamics and quantum gravity, have been dogged for decades by infinities that erupt when theorists try to prod their calculations into new domains. Getting rid of these nagging infinities has probably occupied far more effort than was spent in originating the theories.

   • 2012 May 9, Jonathan Wilson, “Europa League: Radamel Falcao's Atlético Madrid rout Athletic Bilbao”, in the Guardian‎:

     But this is not an Athletic that ever looks comfortable at the back – a criticism that has often dogged Marcelo Bielsa's sides.

   • 2021 June 21, Daisuke Wakabayashi, “Google Executives See Cracks in Their Company’s Success”, in The New York Times‎, →ISSN:

     Yet Google, which was founded in 1998, is dogged by the perception that its best days are behind it.

3. (transitive, nautical) To fasten a hatch securely.

   It is very important to dog down these hatches.

4. (intransitive, emerging usage in British) To watch, or participate, in sexual activity in a public place.

   I admit that I like to dog at my local country park.

   • 2012, The Onion Book of Known Knowledge, page 118:

     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.

5. (intransitive, transitive) To intentionally restrict one's productivity as employee; to work at the slowest rate that goes unpunished.

   Synonyms: soldier, goldbrick

   A surprise inspection of the night shift found that some workers were dogging it.

6. (transitive, slang) To criticize.
   • 1999 March 30, “Shakedown”, in JAG, season 4, episode 18, via CBS:

     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 with the toxic waste.

7. (transitive, military) To divide (a watch) with a comrade.
   • 1902, Winfield Scott Schley, Record of Proceedings of a Court of Inquiry:

     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.

   • 2015, Tom Vetter, 30,000 Leagues Undersea:

     Meanwhile, we dogged the watch sections so that both halves of the crew could fetch full sea bags of uniforms and gear […]

Adjective

dog (not comparable)

1. (slang) Of inferior quality; very bad. (Can we add an example for this sense?)

Pronunciation

Noun

dog

1. (Hong Kong Cantonese, Internet slang, leetspeak, euphemistic) Alternative form of 鳩 / 鸠 (gau1)

Adjective

dog

1. (Hong Kong Cantonese, Internet slang, leetspeak, euphemistic) Alternative form of 鳩 / 鸠 (gau1)

Derived terms

• on dog
• on dog dog

Pronunciation

Noun

dog

1. (Hong Kong Cantonese) The name of the Latin-script letter D/d.

Derived terms

• Deense dog

Synonyms

• tsʼidog

Declension

Declension

Declension

Derived terms

Related terms

• doeg
• toradoeg