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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 dogs, 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 guide dog, gun dog, hearing dog, lapdog, prairie dog, sheepdog
- 2[countable] a male dog, fox or wolf compare bitch
- 3[countable] (informal) a thing of low quality; a failure Her last movie was an absolute dog.
- 4[countable] (informal) an offensive way of describing a woman who is not considered attractive
- 5[countable] (informal) (disapproving) used, especially after an adjective, to describe a man who has done something bad You dirty dog! see hot dog, shaggy-dog story, top dog, watchdog Idioms
to be raining heavily
an event that is planned only in order to impress people so that they will support or buy something the dog and pony show of his visits to the war zone a dog and pony show to sell the idea to investors
a situation in business, politics, etc. where there is a lot of competition and people are willing to harm each other in order to succeed I'm afraid in this line of work it's a case of dog eat dog. We're operating in a dog-eat-dog world.
a person who stops other people from enjoying what he or she cannot use or does not want
an unhappy life, full of problems or unfair treatment He led poor Amy a dog's life. She was desperately lonely, poor dear.
everyone has good luck or success at some point in their life
to argue in a very angry way, especially regularly over a period of time We fought like cats and dogs when we were younger.
to get into a very bad state This company's gone to the dogs since the new management took over.
alcohol that you drink in order to make you feel better when you have drunk too much alcohol the night before
to avoid mentioning a subject or something that happened in the past, in order to avoid any problems or arguments
feeling very sick; vomit a lot
used to describe a situation in which the most important aspect is being influenced and controlled by someone or something that is not as important
(you cannot) successfully make people change their ideas, methods of work, etc., when they have had them for a long time
Check pronunciation: dog