dog
dog [dog dogs dogged dogging] noun, verb BrE [dɒɡ] NAmE [dɔːɡ]
noun
1. countable an animal with four legs and a tail, often kept as a pet or trained for work, for example hunting or guarding buildings. There are many types of dog, some of which are wild
• I took the dog for a walk.
• I could hear a dog barking.
•dog food
•guard dogs
•a dog and her puppies
see also ↑guide dog, ↑gun dog, ↑hearing dog, ↑lapdog, ↑prairie dog, ↑sheepdog, ↑sniffer dog, ↑tracker dog
2. countable a male dog, ↑fox or ↑wolf
compare ↑bitch
3. the dogsplural (BrE, informal) ↑greyhound racing
4. countable (informal, especially NAmE)a thing of low quality; a failure
•Her last movie was an absolute dog.
5. countable (informal)an offensive way of describing a woman who is not considered attractive
6. countable (informal, disapproving)used, especially after an adjective, to describe a man who has done sth bad
•You dirty dog!
see also ↑hot dog, ↑shaggy-dog story, ↑top dog, ↑watchdog
more at the hair of the dog that bit you at ↑hair, be raining cats and dogs at ↑rain v., (as) sick as a dog at ↑sick adj., let sleeping dogs lie at ↑sleep v., the tail wagging the dog at ↑tail n., (you can't) teach an old dog new tricks at ↑teach
Word Origin:
Old English docga, of unknown origin.
Example Bank:
•A dog that savaged a five-year-old child was later destroyed, police have confirmed.
•A dog was gnawing at an old bone.
•A dog was sniffing around my heels.
•Bad dog! What are you doing there?
•He looked at me with puppy-dog eyes.
•He's trained his dog to sit on the back of his bike.
•I'm just going to walk the dog.
•Owners who allow their dogs to foul the footpath will be fined.
•Races have been held at this dog track for seventy years.
•Rex was a champion show dog.
•Sniffer dogs were used to find the drugs.
•Stray dogs roamed the streets at night.
•The dog barked loudly at the stranger.
•The dog bounded up to me and started licking my hand.
•The dog chewed up one of my shoes.
•The dog warden rounds up stray dogs and takes them to the pound until claimed.
•The dog was scratching at the door to be let in.
•The dog went for him and bit him twice on the leg.
•The dog's owner was banned from keeping dogs for five years.
•The dog's owner was fined £500 and banned from keeping dogs for five years.
•The labrador is being trained to be a guide dog for the blind.
•The lady was kissing a little lap dog.
•The little dogs were yapping at my ankles.
•The stray dogs are wormed and treated with flea powder.
•The team wanted to prove that they were top dogs in the region.
•These dogs have been bred to work as guide dogs for the blind.
•These dogs were bred to hunt small animals.
•We didn't want puppies so we had the dog neutered.
•We recently had to put our dog to sleep.
•election lawyers who are mean as junkyard dogs
Idioms: ↑dog and pony show ▪ ↑dog eat dog ▪ ↑dog in the manger ▪ ↑dog's dinner ▪ ↑dog's life ▪ ↑every dog has his day ▪ ↑give a dog a bad name ▪ ↑go to the dogs ▪ ↑not have a dog's chance ▪ ↑why keep a dog and bark yourself?
verb (-gg-)
1. ~ sb/sth (of a problem or bad luck)to cause you trouble for a long time
•He had been dogged by bad health all his life.
•Her career was dogged by misfortune.
2. ~ sb/sth to follow sb closely
•She had the impression that someone was dogging her steps.
Verb forms: 
Word Origin:
Old English docga, of unknown origin.
See also: ↑go to hell in a handbasket
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