dog.
A mammal of the family Canidae:
Meaning & usage
A mammal of the family Canidae: The species Canis familiaris (sometimes designated Canis lupus familiaris), domesticated for thousands of years and of highly variable appearance because of human breeding.
The dog barked all night long.
A mammal of the family Canidae: Any member of the family Canidae, including domestic dogs, wolves, coyotes, jackals, and their relatives (extant and extinct).
A mammal of the family Canidae: A male dog, wolf, or fox, as opposed to a bitch or vixen.
The meat of this animal, eaten as food.
Did you know that they eat dog in parts of Asia?
A person: A dull, unattractive girl or woman.
She’s a real dog.
A person: A man, guy, chap.
You lucky dog!
A person: Someone who overeats or eats rapidly and noisily.
A person: Someone who is cowardly, worthless, or morally reprehensible.
Come back and fight, you dogs!
You dirty dog.
A person: A sexually aggressive man.
A mechanical device or support: Any of various mechanical devices for holding, gripping, or fastening something, particularly with a tooth-like projection.
A mechanical device or support: A click or pallet adapted to engage the teeth of a ratchet wheel, to restrain the back action.
A mechanical device or support: A metal support for logs in a fireplace.
The dogs were too hot to touch.
A mechanical device or support: A double-ended side spike driven through a hole in the flange of a rail on a tramway.
The eighteenth Lenormand card.
A hot dog: a frankfurter, wiener, or similar sausage; or a sandwich made from this.
An underdog.
Foot; toe.
My dogs are barking!
You look good in those shoes with your dogs out!
(from "dog and bone") Phone or mobile phone.
My dog is dead.
One of the cones used to divide up a racetrack when training horses.
Something that performs poorly.
That modification turned his Dodge hemi into a dog.
Something that performs poorly. A flop; a film that performs poorly at the box office.
A cock, as of a gun.
A dance having a brief vogue in the 1960s in which the actions of a dog were mimicked.
Where this word comes from
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 for dogs, commonly used by children, meaning "good/useful animal". Another one is that it is related to *docce (“stock, muscle”), from Proto-West Germanic *dokkā (“round mass, ball, muscle, doll”), whence English dock (“stumpy tail”). In 14th-century England, hound (from Old English hund) was the general word for all domestic canines, and dog referred to a subtype resembling the modern mastiff and bulldog. By the 16th century, dog had become the general word, and hound had begun to refer only to breeds used for hunting. In the 16th century, the word dog was adopted by several continental European languages as their word for mastiff. Despite similarities in forms and meaning, it is not related to Mbabaram dog.
To pursue with the intent to catch.
To follow in an annoying or harassing way.
The woman cursed him so that trouble would dog his every step.
To fasten a hatch securely.
It is very important to dog down these hatches.
To watch, or participate, in sexual activity in a public place.
I admit that I like to dog at my local country park.
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.
To criticize.
To divide (a watch) with a comrade.
Where this word comes from
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 for dogs, commonly used by children, meaning "good/useful animal". Another one is that it is related to *docce (“stock, muscle”), from Proto-West Germanic *dokkā (“round mass, ball, muscle, doll”), whence English dock (“stumpy tail”). In 14th-century England, hound (from Old English hund) was the general word for all domestic canines, and dog referred to a subtype resembling the modern mastiff and bulldog. By the 16th century, dog had become the general word, and hound had begun to refer only to breeds used for hunting. In the 16th century, the word dog was adopted by several continental European languages as their word for mastiff. Despite similarities in forms and meaning, it is not related to Mbabaram dog.
Of inferior quality; very bad.
Oh man, this game is absolutely dog!
Where this word comes from
Clipping of dogshit.
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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.
Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.