Green’s Dictionary of Slang

dog n.2

1. of humans or animals, based on negative characteristic.

(a) (also dawg) an untrustworthy, treacherous, completely venal man.

[Scot]Dunbar ‘Flyting of Dunbar & Kennedy’ in Mackenzie Poems (1932) 19: Machomete, manesuorne, bugrist abhominabile, Devill, dampnit dog, sodymyte insatiable.
[UK]Becon Early Works (1843) 253: O insatiable dogs! O crafty foxes! What craft, deceit, subtility, and falsehood use merchants in buying and selling!
[UK]Three Ladies of London II: Thou hast honesty, sir reverence! come out, dog, where art thou?
[UK]Shakespeare Richard III I iii: O Buckingham! take heed of yonder dog: Look, when he fawns, he bites.
[UK]Return from Parnassus Pt II IV ii: Base dog, tis not the custome in Italy to draw vpon euery idle cur that barkes.
[UK]Shakespeare Tempest I i: A pox o’ your throat, you bawling, you bawling, blasphemous, incharitable dog!
[UK]Fletcher Women Pleased III iv: Dog, I shall catch ye, With all your cunning Sir.
[UK]Beaumont & Fletcher Little French Lawyer III iv: Geld me, For ’tis not fit I should be man againe, I am an Asse, a Dog.
[UK]Rowley A Match at Midnight I i: A dogge, a very dog, there is more mercy in a paire of unbrib’d Bailiffes.
[UK]Marlowe Lascivious Queen V ii: And whither then you dog?
[UK]F. Fane Love in the Dark II i: You whorson Blackmore Dog you!
[UK]T. Shadwell Squire of Alsatia V i: O Unmerciful Dogs! Were ever Gentlemen us’d thus before?
[UK]Cibber Woman’s Wit I i: O Dog! Villain! Rogue! Sirrah, How dare you look me in the Face? Draw!
[UK]Vanbrugh Provoked Wife IV i: lord r.: Is the dog dead? col.: No, d--n him ! I heard him wheeze.
[Scot]J. Arbuthnot Hist. of John Bull 103: Thou art a damn’d dog.
[UK]S. Centlivre Artifice Act IV: This is a thorough-pac’d Cuckold-making Dog! – How softly the Villain whispers!
[UK]Proceedings at Sessions (City of London) July 155/2: Don’t you damn your Soul too much, you Dog! is it fit that any Rogue should knock my Teeth out?
[UK]Fielding Life of Jonathan Wild (1784) II 194: The unconscionable dog hath not allowed me a single dram.
[UK]Proceedings at Assizes (Surrey) 29/1: There were words between Brian and Carr; and Brian said, you dog, if it had not been for me, you would have killed that man.
[US]‘Andrew Barton’ Disappointment I i: Deliver the papers, you dog!
[UK]Sheridan School For Scandal III i: And your friend is an unconscionable dog.
[Ire] ‘Squire Raynold’s Downfall’ Irish Songster 4: But Robert Mc. Keon that blood thirsty dog, / Then shot thro’ his forehead a three corner slug.
[UK]A York Dialogue Between Ned and Harry 14: You drunken dog, you rogue, you rascal.
[UK]G. Colman Yngr Poor Gentleman III i: A jackanapes! [...] I’ll disinherit the dog for his assurance.
[Scot]W. Scott Rob Roy (1883) 334: ‘Look at me, you Highland dog,’ said the officer.
[US]R.M. Bird City Looking Glass II vi: rav.: Dog! give her back. ros.: Thou worse than dog! thou beast, Without a name to express thy lust or fury!
[UK] ‘A Marine’s Courtship’ Bentley’s Misc. July 90: If I ever catch you on board my ship, I’ll give you a rope’s end, you dog!
[UK]Thackeray Vanity Fair I 145: The infamous dog has got every vice except hypocrisy.
[UK]C. Reade It Is Never Too Late to Mend III 260: The unconquerable dog said to himself, ‘The day will come that I will tell her how I have risked my soul for her; how I have played the villain for her’.
[US]A.F. Hill Our Boys 166: You drunken dog!
[US]J.H. Nicholson Opal Fever 5: Dog! [...] dog, that you are!
[UK]J. Payn Thicker than Water II 5: You dog with the teeth [...] you will be hanged like a dog.
[Aus]E. Dyson ‘Dead Man’s Lode’ Below and On Top 🌐 He was a dog, a mean hound, but he didn’t look it, an’ he was a good miner.
[US]C.E. Mulford Bar-20 xxv: I’m going after th’ dogs who did it.
E. Dyson ‘Two Battlers and a Bear’ in Lone Hand (Sydney) Apr. 606/1: ‘She won over the bear. ’E turned dorg on me’.
[UK]A. Christie Secret of Chimneys (1956) 37: ‘Dog,’ he said, ‘Worse than dog. Paid slave of an effete monarchy.’.
[US](con. 1917–19) Dos Passos Nineteen Nineteen in USA (1966) 509: You’d fight, wouldn’t you? . . . If you’re not a dirty yellow dawg.
[Aus]X. Herbert Capricornia (1939) 21: The dogs! thought he. They had learnt their business in the stony-hearted cities of the South.
[SA]H.C. Bosman Willemsdorp (1981) I 507: Pieta was only a dog of a Bechuana and almost as low as a Pondo.
[US]Goldin et al. DAUL 60/1: Dog, n. 1. A cowardly or unprincipled person.
[US]E. De Roo Big Rumble 82: You better talk like I ain’t a dog or maybe this gang will need a new war counselor.
[SA]Casey ‘Kid’ Motsisi ‘Riot’ Casey and Co. 83: ‘What are you doing to our children, you government dog?’ one of the women shrieked.
[US]E. Folb Runnin’ Down Some Lines 148: A number of terms were used to characterize the young man who could not be trusted [...] dog, dog nigger.
[US]Da Bomb 🌐 9: Dog: [...] 2. a person that lies and cheats or is only interested in benefiting him/herself.
[UK](con. 1988) N. ‘Razor’ Smith A Few Kind Words and a Loaded Gun 330: A ‘dog’ is how prisoners describe any screw who will go out of his or her way to start trouble where none exists.
[UK]W. Chen Chutney Power and Stories 22: Deolat was a dog. He had taken many young girls and seduced many wives.
[SA]IOL News (Western Cape) 9 May 🌐 Not all the police are bad, but some of them are ‘dogs’ because they are only interested in getting salaries, instead of helping us people.
[Aus]D. Whish-Wilson Old Scores [ebook] My father was a dog. Looked after number one.
Mail & Guardian Online 20 July 🌐 ‘Men who want to rape women who wear miniskirts are dogs!’ she yells .
[Aus]G. Disher Consolation 297: ‘Ran off like the dog he is’.

(b) an unpleasant woman or man.

[UK]Marston Jacke Drums Entertainment Act III: Out you French Dogge, touch my Loue, and Ile —.
[UK]Etherege Love In A Tub V iv: How was I bewitch’d to trust such a villain! Oh Rogue, Dog, Coward, Palmer!
[UK]Etherege Man of Mode I i: Dogs! Will they ever lie snoring a-bed till noon?
[UK]T. Shadwell Squire of Alsatia II ii: Ah! dear lovings dogs! They love him, by’r lady, as a cat loves a mouse.
[UK]Congreve Love for Love I i: Here’s a dog now, a traitor in his wine.
[UK]Farquhar Recruiting Officer II iii: You rascal! [...] I’ll trample you to death, you dog!
[UK]S. Centlivre Gotham Election I i: Zounds I hate these Whiggish Dogs.
[UK]Proceedings Old Bailey 10 Oct. 2/1: He going by Bolton’s again, the prisoner came out, call’d him Dog, Rougue, Son of a Bitch, and other ill Names.
[UK]Progress of a Rake 11: In Roguery he soon refin’d, / The saddest Dog he’s not behind.
[UK]Proceedings Old Bailey 5 Apr. 9/1: The Prisoner came violently on me, and said, D – n you, you old Dog, I will do your Business for you: upon that, he made no more ado, but he put both his Hands about my Throat, to throttle me.
[UK]Low Life Above Stairs II ii: Oh! ’tis Frisseron, my Barber; the impudent Dog to pretend to rival a Nobleman!
[UK]Sheridan Rivals (1776) II i: I’ll tell you what, Jack – I mean, you dog – if you don’t, by –.
[UK]‘Peter Pindar’ ‘The Lousiad’ Works (1794) I 298: This Louse affair’s a very pretty joke! An’t you asham’d of it, you dirty dogs?
[UK]Dialogue Between a Noted Shoemaker and his Wife 4: Then work, you drunken dog, to pay for it.
[UK]B.H. Malkin (trans.) Adventures of Gil Blas (1822) III 260: A vulgar dog, but warm!
[US]‘Hector Bull-us’ Diverting Hist. of John Bull and Brother Jonathan 76: Thou are moreover a great blockhead, as well as an ungrateful dog, son Jonathan.
[UK]D. Jerrold Black-Ey’d Susan I i: No matter; let the old dog bark, his teeth will not last forever.
[UK] ‘Ye Rakehells So Jolly’ in Swell!!! or, Slap-Up Chaunter 26: If any presume to come in the room, / We’ll throw the dog out at the window.
[UK]Dickens Dombey and Son (1970) 378: ‘You dog,’ said Mr Carker, through his set jaws, ‘I’ll strangle you!’.
[US]Melville Moby Dick (1907) 306: The ungracious and ungrateful dog!
[UK]E. Eden Semi-Attached Couple (1979) 260: Besides, he is a vulgar dog at best.
[US]Cambria Freeman (Edensburg, PA) 17 Oct. 3/2: The arrogant Dog Forney.
[US]W.H. Thomes Slaver’s Adventures 204: When he had free access to liquor [...] he became the most drunken dog that ever landed upon the mole of Havana.
[UK]Kipling ‘Black Jack’ in Soldiers Three (1907) 98: They thried some av their dog’s tricks on me.
[UK]Marvel XIV:354 Aug. 6: ‘You dog!’ the Boer hissed.
[UK]Gem 16 Sept. 14: I’m an ungrateful dog!
[UK]Marvel 10 Apr. l 4: If I catch you in my house again I’ll shoot you for the dog you are!
[UK]J.B. Booth London Town 99: What dogs we were in those days!
[UK]V. Davis Gentlemen of the Broad Arrows 66: Who are you spying on, you dog?
[US](con. 1944) N. Mailer Naked and Dead 351: I’ve been fooling around and I’m a dog.
[UK]P. Larkin letter 9 Nov. in Thwaite Sel. Letters (1992) 268: I wrote to Harrods asking for information about letter-paper, but the dogs haven’t replied.
[UK]T. Keyes All Night Stand 89: ‘Who you callin’ a dawg,’ he threatens.
[Can]R. Caron Go-Boy! 78: What a dirty, lousy, stinking dog!
[UK]B. Robinson Peculiar Memories of Thomas Penman 68: She’s a fucking mess [...] Anybody could do it to her, she’s a dog.
[UK]Indep. Rev. 18 Feb. 5: One is a sex god and the other is a dog.

(c) (also dawg) a horse that is slow, difficult to handle etc.

[US]H. Blossom Checkers 11: Senator Irby, a stake-horse, to be beaten out by an old dog like Peytonia.
[US]‘Hugh McHugh’ Get Next 24: Every dog we had mentioned to the Bookies proved to be a false alarm.
[US]Van Loan ‘For the Pictures’ in Taking the Count 337: On a dry track that dawg wouldn’t have been one, two, nowheres.
[Ire]Joyce Ulysses 312: Twenty to one, says Lenehan. Such is life in an outhouse. Throwaway, says he. Takes the biscuit and talking about bunions. Frailty, thy name is Sceptre. [...] – Keep your pecker up, says Joe. She’d have won the money only for the other dog.
[US]D. Runyon ‘That Ever-Loving Wife of Hymie’s’ Runyon on Broadway (1954) 602: They ought to put you in an insane asylum if you really believe your old dog has a chance.
[US]J. Steinbeck Wayward Bus 96: He called race horses dogs.
[US]N. Algren Stoopers amnd Shoeboard Watchers’ in Entrapment (2009) 209: You drop the [betting] ticket at your shoes and wonder what made you go for a dog like that.
[UK]R.L. Pike Mute Witness (1997) 83: That Bar-Fly – he was a real dog. He ran out.
[US]H. Rawson Dict. of Invective (1991) 119: A dog is a racehorse that doesn’t run very fast, and a failure of any sort.
[UK]Guardian Editor 2 July n.p.: Unreliable horse (aka jade).

(d) attrib. use of sense 1c.

[US]Spirit of the Times (N.Y.) 27 June 199: The ‘old codger on the dog horse’.
[US]Van Loan ‘Eliphaz, Late Fairfax’ Old Man Curry 158: If it’s a dog race, there won’t be any price on him.

(e) (US black, also doggie) an offensive or abusive man.

[UK]G. Kersh Night and the City 177: You’re a dirty, rotten dog.
[US]C. Brown Manchild in the Promised Land (1969) 118: To Johnny, every chick was a bitch [...] And a man had to be a dog in order to handle a bitch.
[US]D. Goines Street Players 130: They ain’t nothing but dogs, okay?
[US]E. Folb Runnin’ Down Some Lines xx: Men jus’ cain’t be trusted. Dey all dogs to me.
[UK]J. Mowry Way Past Cool 51: ‘He lyin,’ said Ric [...] ‘Like a motherfuckin doggie,’ added Rac.
[UK]Indep. Mag. 10 July 53: Police claim he confessed: ‘I did it because I’m a dirty dog’.

2. (also dawg) of humans, based on positive or neutral characteristics.

(a) a person, irrespective of moral/social status.

[UK]Jonson Every Man Out of his Humour II i: So is the dog’s.
[UK]Yorkshire Tragedy I ii: Has the dog left me then After his tooth hath left me?
[UK]Dick of Devonshire in Bullen II (1883) II iv: Whither doe you lead that English dog, Kill him!
[UK]Wycherley Plain-Dealer I i: No Woman neither, you impertinent Dog. Wou’d you be Pimping?
[UK]Vanbrugh Aesop Pt II Scene iii: Why, I’m a strong young Dog, you Old Put, you.
[UK]M. Pix Adventures in Madrid III i: Oh dull Dog as I was!
[UK]‘Whipping-Tom’ Democritus III 29: Ye great lubberly heavy heel’d Dogs, where are you carrying those young pretty Girls?
[UK]Pope Second Epistle of Horace Imitated Bk II 5: He slept, poor Dog! and lost it to a doit.
[Scot]S. Johnson in Boswell Life (1906) I 280: I love the young dogs of this age, they have more wit and humour and knowledge of life than we had.
[UK]Sheridan Rivals (1776) IV i: I’ll say you are a determined dog – hey, Bob?
[UK]‘Peter Pindar’ ‘Bozzy & Piozzi’ Works (1794) I 354: The Doctor, ent’ring, call’d me drunken dog.
[UK]A. Pasquin Shrove Tuesday 101: This ne’er had been, you silly dog, / Had you observ’d the Decalogue.
[UK]C. Dibdin Yngr Song Smith 71: Jack was, moreover, a comical dog.
[UK]G. Colman Yngr Blue Devils 21: megrim: You’re a happy fellow. james: I be a miserable dog.
[UK]C. Dibdin Yngr Village Fete 22: rosetta: I’m told that men are oft untrue. justice: Aye, that’s your flashy dogs – They are.
[UK]Egan Life of an Actor 76: A damned high dog — the rattling rogue invited With wags to dine.
[UK]Sportsman 28 Jan. 2/2: Notes on News [...] [T]he act is a triumph of humour, and the lawyers who expound it the ‘funniest dogs’ out .
[Aus]Bulletin (Sydney) 24 Jan. 13/1: They were a lot of young dogs who had come out with a hundred or so, and had lived for a month at the rate of about £150 a week, feeding the impecunious and subsidizing the ballet.
[UK]G.M. Fenn Sappers and Miners 47: What, you idle young dog! Do you expect to pass all your life fishing, bathing, and bird’s-nesting here?
[UK]B.L. Farjeon Amblers 178: Hi, Verney! Stop, you dog!
[UK]Kipling ‘Regulus’ Complete Stalky & Co. (1987) 119: When King’s really on tap he’s an interestin’ dog.
[US]R. Coleman Girl From Back Home in Hatch & Hamalian Lost Plays of Harlem Renaissance (1996) 98: Every gal in New York envies you [...] they all nudge each other and says, ‘There’s Jazz Barrett’s gal – Ain’t she the lucky dog!’.
[UK]M. Marshall Tramp-Royal on the Toby 7: I meet with my chinas. There’s the Talking fish with his kip beside the radiator – knowing dog!
[US] in G. Legman Limerick (1953) 191: There once was a handsome Haitian, / The luckiest dog in creation, / He worked for the rubber trust / Teaching the upper crust / The science of safe copulation.
[US](con. 1930s) R. Wright Lawd Today 94: ‘Ain’t that a good looking dog?’ asked Bob, pointing to his reflection.

(b) (also dawg) a clever, cheery, hearty person; esp. in affectionate phr. you old dog.

[UK]Otway Soldier’s Fortune II i: The best in the world, dear dog.
[UK]Cibber Love Makes a Man I i: Wou’d that pleasant Dog Clody were here to Badiner a little.
[UK]W. King York Spy 19: One jolly Dog came up to me thus, Sir, if you’ll oblige me with a Half penny for Tobacco, I’ll repeat the Lord’s Prayer backwards.
[UK]J. Addison Drummer I i: Thou dost not know what mischief it might do thee, if such a silly dog as thee should offer to speak to it.
[UK]Fielding Don Quixote II xiv: Ha, ha, ha! a comical Dog!
[UK]Memoirs of an Oxford Scholar 80: I’m an Unlucky Dog.
[UK]G. Colman Yngr Jealous Wife I i: Ay, you silly young dog.
[US]‘Andrew Barton’ Disappointment II ii: Hah! what a queer dog!
[UK]Mme D’Arblay Diary (1891) 1 201: The clergy in general are but odd dogs.
[UK]H. Cowley Belle’s Stratagem II i: How handsome the dog looks to-day!
[Ire]C. Macklin Man of the World Act II: O, let us have the jolly dogs, by all means.
[UK]B.H. Malkin (trans.) Adventures of Gil Blas (1822) I 27: You are a lucky dog!
[UK]‘Thomas Brown’ Fudge Family in Paris in Moore Letter III Poetical Works VII 112: But a sideboard, you dog, where one’s eye roves about.
[UK]T. Morton School For Grown Children II iii: You’re a lucky dog.
[UK] ‘Saint Peter’s Lips’ Frisky Vocalist 29: Oh! what a lucky dog, (Tom cried), / They’re just the thing, but rather wide.
[UK]Lytton Money III iii: Smooth is drinking lemonade. Keeps his head clear. Monstrous clever dog!
[UK]F.E. Smedley Frank Fairlegh (1878) 267: Laughing at me, all of ’em, impudent young dogs.
[UK]Lancaster Gaz. 24 Oct. 5/6: The many limbtearing fashions oif fighting among the manly classes of the age [...] was not manliness, but ‘doggishness’.
[UK]J. Hatton Cruel London III 307: You are a gay dog.
[Aus]Bulletin (Sydney) 11 Apr. 12/1: We have often wondered why those gay dogs on the staff of the Morning Fairfax were such ardent worshippers at the shrine of Venus.
[UK]Sporting Times 9 Jan. 6/1: [He] starts with a swelling breast, and stuck-out chin, and the conviction that he is a real dawg.
[UK] ‘’Arry on Arrius’ Punch 26 Dec. 302/2: Seems some old Latin cove called Cat Ullus — a gayish old dog I should say.
[UK]A. Binstead Mop Fair 210: Lucky dog! lucky dog!
[US]H.C. Witwer Smile A Minute 239: Then he tells me I’m a lucky dog to have such a wife and baby.
[US]Dos Passos Manhattan Transfer 193: I’m just caretaker while he’s abroad, the lucky dog.
[Aus]Aus. Women’s Wkly 9 Feb. 13/2: At this ripe age Dickie-boy became known as ‘The Gay Dog’. His doggishness evidenced itself in the angle of his hat, which was always the latest style .
[UK]A. Christie Murder in the Mews (1954) 74: M. Poirot seems determined to make you out a gay dog.
[US] in G. Legman Limerick (1953) 16: There was a gay dog from Ontario / Who fancied himself as a Lothario.
[UK]J. Bingham My Name is Michael Sibley (2000) 20: You were a bit of a dog when you were a study-owner.
[UK]G. Melly Rum, Bum and Concertina (1978) 43: I felt quite a dog. Two girls, one on each arm.
[US]E. Torres After Hours 51: ‘You dawg,’ Brigante said.
[US]‘The Master Pimp’ Pimp’s Rap 117: ‘I enjoy the benefits of being a bachelor.’ Larry laughed and said, ‘You lucky dog.’.

(c) (also darg, dargie, dawg, dogg) a close friend.

[US]Detroit Free Press (MI) 8 Feb. B/5: Shout outs from Mickey c/o ’94 and my dogs from the hood .
[US]Da Bomb 🌐 8: Dawg (also dog): Buddy or comrade.
[US]Dr Dre ‘Light Speed’ 🎵 Introduced you to my Doggs, that don’t love hoes.
[US]Eble Campus Sl. Nov. 2: dawg – friend: What’s up, dawg? Also spelled dog, dogg.
[US]UGK ‘Heaven’ 🎵 I wonder if they got a spot for all the Tupacs / Dawgs in pens and the boys with the weed spots.
Young Jeezy ‘Holy Ghost’ 🎵 I lost my dawg to the fame, I charge it all to the game.
[UK]T. Thorne (ed.) ‘Drill Slang Glossary’ at Forensic Linguistic Databank 🌐 Dargie – male friend, male active on the street, gang member.
[UK]G. Krauze What They Was 208: Capo is my darg forreal.
[US]J. Hannaham Didn’t Nobody Give a Shit 74: ‘Could you please, please, don’t say nothin to my dawgs?’.

(d) (also dogg) a general term of address, usu. between men.

[US]Eble Campus Sl. Apr. 3: dog – friendly noun of address used among peers.
[US]G. Tate Midnight Lightning 106: It’s like giving him a freaking bazooka, dogg.
[UK]G. Iles Turning Angel 379: You bluffing anyway, dog. I gots to go.
[US]A. Steinberg Running the Books 6: Inmates exchange intrixcate handshakes and formal titles: OG, young G, boo, bro, baby boy, brutha, dude, cuz, dawg, P, G, daddy, pimpin’, nigga, man, thug thizzle, my boy, my man, homie.
[US]C.D. Rosales Word Is Bone [ebook] ‘Get your ass in here, dog’.
[US]T. Pluck Boy from County Hell 122: ‘Know you ain’t gonna kill me, dog’.

(e) constr. with the, an admirable person.

[UK]G. Malkani Londonstani (2007) 20: Wikid, man, you b da dog. Da dirrty dawg.

3. senses based on sexuality.

(a) (US, also doggy) the penis.

[UK] R. Brome New Academy II i: He Kennels his waterdog in Turnbull-street.
[UK]Mercurius Fumigosus 6 5 July 48: The Shee-sinners of Dogg and Bitchyeard are drawing up a Petition.
[UK]Merry Maid of Islington 15: isa.: I have but one doubt. marg.: What may be that I am not a Gentlewoman, you shall know that there’s many a Gentlewoman has stroakt the Dog.
[US]H.N. Cary Sl. of Venery III (t/s) n.p.: masturbation [...] beating the dog.
[US]G.V. Higgins Digger’s Game (1981) 150: Got a taste of the dog and now you can’t leave it alone.
[US]S. King Long Walk in Bachman Books (1995) 296: I’d bet my dog and lot you never slipped it to that girl of yours.
[US]J. Stahl Plainclothes Naked (2002) 282: I probably rubbed my face or something, then held my doggy when I went to the bathroom.

(b) the vagina [early 17C nonce use: a dog with a hole in its head].

[UK] ‘Subtle Damosel’ in Ebsworth Roxburghe Ballads (1897) VIII:2 256: He gave me fine fairings, to kiss me was bold; But at last I do give him the dog for to hold.
[US] oral testimony in Lighter HDAS I (informant born 1894).

(c) (orig. US) a promiscuous man or woman.

[US]Nat. Police Gaz. (NY) 20 May 3/1: Joe Emmett has paid $2,500 for a prize St. Bernard dog. That's cheap for him. Generally, when Joe has a ‘dog’ with him it’s a more expensive one than that.
[Aus]Bulletin (Sydney) 4 July 9/3: He thinks it would be better if Miss Breton ‘would look over instead of at the audience.’ The dorg! Ada couldn’t have looked his way all night.
[US]H.L. Wilson Ruggles of Red Gap (1917) 339: His lordship was by way of being a bit of a dog.
[Ire]Joyce Ulysses 386: A monstrous fine bit of cowflesh! I’ll be sworn she has rendezvoused you. What, you dog? Have you a way with them?
[UK]G. Greene Gun for Sale (1973) 82: I said, ‘You won’t be able to find a strange bed, Piker.’ Catch my meaning? He’s a dog, old Piker.
[UK](con. c.1928) D. Holman-Hunt My Grandmothers and I (1987) 180: It was some story about the Guvnor being a bit of a dog and seducing his favourite model, Emma Warkins.
[US]J. Allen Assault with a Deadly Weapon 95: A woman can be with two or three dudes [...] Automatically she becomes a canine, a dog.
[Aus]Lette & Carey Puberty Blues 74: The boys could screw as many molls as they liked [...] No one cared very much about that. We all thought they were dogs.
[US]E. Folb Runnin’ Down Some Lines 151: The female animals [...] have their male counterparts – the rooster, the tomcat, the bull, the dog.
[US]J. Stahl Permanent Midnight 56: So constantly trailing women, fellow Hustler-ites dubbed him ‘the Dog.’.
[US](con. 1975–6) E. Little Steel Toes 107: I ain’t a dog, she was a real nice chick, just she had stuff to take care of and so do I.

(d) (US black) a prostitute, esp. when ageing and/or run-down.

[US]D. Maurer ‘Prostitutes & Criminal Argots’ in Lang. Und. (1981) 117/1: bladder. An unattractive prostitute. Also beetle, [...] dog, [...] tart, tomato, each expressing varying degrees of unattractiveness.
[US]A. Lomax Mister Jelly Roll (1952) 143: [footnote] First time I saw Jelly was in 1911 [...] He was, well, he was what you might call pimping at the time, had that diamond in his tooth and a couple of dogs (prostitutes) along.
[US]Wentworth & Flexner DAS.
[US]‘Iceberg Slim’ Pimp 116: This dog of mine wants you to lay her. [Ibid.] 245: I could take a dog, a broken-down whore with trillions of mileage on her.
[US]R. Todasco Intelligent Woman’s Guide to Dirty Words.
[US]‘The Master Pimp’ Pimp’s Rap 65: She’s a dog. You tell her to go south and she’ll go north.

(e) (US black) lust, sexual desire.

[US]G. Clinton ‘Atomic Dog’ 🎵 Computer Games [album] Why must I feel like that / Oh, why must I chase the cat / Like the boys / When they’re out there walkin’ the streets / May compete / Nothin’ but the dog in ya.

4. of inanimate objects, based on negative characteristics.

(a) a general negative description, something useless, worthless, broken down etc; a second-rate product or one that is hard to sell; a mediocre performance.

[UK]Smollett (trans.) Adventures of Gil Blas 1V 61: Ah dog of a book! thou shalt never make me shed tears again.
[US]Ted Yates This Is New York 17 May [synd.col.] Billie Hayward’s party [...] was a dawg.
[US] in Mencken Amer. Lang. Supplement II (1948) 725: ‘A decrepit automobile or airplane’ [...] dog. [Ibid.] 753: Dog. A dress that does not sell well.
[US]E. Wilson 26 Jan. [synd. col.] [of film scripts] ‘It was a dog. It just stank [...] If they give me another dog, I’ll take another suspension’.
[US]B. Spicer Blues for the Prince (1989) 42: I draw all the dogs.
[US]Mad mag. Aug. 16: I was dying looking at this dog [i.e. a film] and it felt so good to leave.
[US]H. Ellison ‘This Is Jackie Spinning’ Gentleman Junkie (1961) 69: You’ve been pushing that Conlan dog [i.e. a record] for over a week now.
[US]Down Beat’s Jazz Record Reviews V 210: The only real dog in the set is Friday the Thirteenth, a doleful badly balanced performance.
[US]D. Ponicsan Last Detail 104: The movie is a dog.
[US]S. King Christine 151: I ain’t seen such a dog as that ’58 in years.
[US](con. early 1950s) J. Ellroy L.A. Confidential 231: It’s a dog of a case, and you don’t want to prosecute it.
[Aus]R.G. Barrett Between the Devlin 27: Randwick Council must have known Blue Seas was a dog and decided it was the ideal place to put in a roundabout.
[UK]Indep. Mag. 6 Aug. 32: According to Drif, a ‘dog’ is a book which is so unsaleable that you can hear it barking a mile off.
[UK]Observer Rev. 30 Jan. 9: An absolute dog of a record. Pants, shite, total cack.
[Aus]R.G. Barrett Rosa Marie’s Baby (2013) [ebook] It wasn’t the worst movie Les had ever seen [but] it was a dog.
[US]R. Price Lush Life 407: The police commissioner had wanted no part of this dog [i.e. a press conference] .
[US]T. Pluck ‘Firecracker’ in Life During Wartime (2018) 229: What you want with a slow car anyway, she said. It’s a dog.
[US](con. 1962) J. Ellroy Enchanters 28: The picture [i.e. Cleopatra] is already a legendary dog in waiting.

(b) (also dawg) unpleasantness, bad characteristics, meanness.

J.J. Hooper Widow Rugby’s Husband 21: I’ll whip as much dog out of you as ’ll make a full pack of hounds [DA].
[Aus]Sydney Sportsman (Surry Hills, NSW) 7 Sept. 6/4: Then the dog showed In the man who had invited them [...] That was a mean, lousy way of showing what a smart fellow he was.
[US]H. Green Maison De Shine 270: He’s pure dawg, he is, to go drinkin’ when he shouldn’t.
[US]C. Brown Manchild in the Promised Land (1969) 399: I suppose all men have a little bit of dog in them.
[US]E. Bunker Animal Factory 82: He won’t turn him out. Earl hasn’t got any dog like that in him.

(c) (US, also dawg) a disappointment, a failure.

[US]Van Loan ‘Little Sunset’ Ten-Thousand-Dollar Arm 112: He knew that the idol of Monday is the ‘dog’ on Tuesday.
[US]Weseen Dict. Amer. Sl. 252: [Sports – Miscell.] Dog – An athlete who lacks enthusiasm for the game that he is in.
[US]B. Schulberg Harder They Fall (1971) 93: You don’t mean that dog Cowboy Coombs, for God’s sake?
[US]N.Y. Times Book Rev. 10 Aug. 8: [‘The book will have] a record-breaking sale.’ ‘Yes, unless the book turns out to be a dog’ [W&F].
[US]Eble Campus Sl. Mar. 4: like a dog – exhibiting lack of talent and coordination: He shoots that shot like a dog.
[US]J. Wambaugh Choirboys (1976) 89: If this motherfuckin dawg of a lyin wino was really the one to attack a woman.
[UK]T. Blacker Fixx 116: They’re determined your first record will be a dog.
[US]D. Remnick King of the World 156: The Times’ regular boxing writer...declared that the Liston-Clay fight was a dog.

(d) weakness, cowardice, e.g. in a boxer; also attrib.

[US]W.C. Heinz Professional 193: He ain’t the fighter people think he is. He got dog in him, but he don’t show it to them yet.
J. Olsen Black is Best 123: He has a certain amount of dog in him, and I’m not saying that to knock the boy, either [...] We’re all afraid of one thing or another.
[US]G.V. Higgins Digger’s Game (1981) 130: I always thought he hadda lotta dog in him.
[US]D. Woodrell Muscle for the Wing 141: My left tit ain’t got no dog in it.
[Aus]M.B. ‘Chopper’ Read How to Shoot Friends 172: I still believe that to leave a mate posted is the greatest dog act of all.
[US]F.X. Toole Rope Burns 140: Wipe your face, boy. We got no dog in us.

5. (also dawg) ostentation, showiness, style, esp. if affected or pretentious.

[UK] ‘Tom the Drover’ No. 30 Papers of Francis Place (1819) n.p.: His togs were tight and clever, his dog was staunch and free.
[US]L.H. Bagg Four Years at Yale 44: Dog, style, splurge.
[US]W.D. Howells Hazard of New Fortunes V 267: He’s made the thing awfully chic; it’s jimmy; there’s lots of dog about it.
[US]E.H. Babbitt ‘College Words and Phrases’ in DN II:i 32: dog, n. Style; good clothes.
[Aus]Sun. Times (Perth) 1 Nov. 45/3: The administration [...] left much to be desired. There was too much ‘dog’ in some directions, and too little hard yacker and business efficiency on the whole .
[Aus]C.J. Dennis ‘The Push’ Moods of Ginger Mick 39: Fer dawg an’ side an’ snobbery is down an’ out fer keeps. / It’s grit an’ reel good fellership that gits yeh friends in ’eaps.
[US]S. Lewis Babbitt (1974) 127: Too much dog altogether.
[US]J. Dixon Free To Love 37: Aw, pop [...] get a snappy roadster if you’re going in for dog.
[US]S.J. Simonsen Among the Sourdoughs 62: Great preparations were made [...] to make some show of ‘dog’.

6. Und. uses.

(a) (UK Und.; later use US) a police officer.

[UK]C. Reade It Is Never Too Late to Mend III 118: The dog used fine words on these occasions [...] and being now alone he pored over his police-sheet.
[UK]Leaves from Diary of Celebrated Burglar 93/2: I know over ten who has been ‘collared’ away from his side and he has never been touched by the dogs.
[US](con. 1948) G. Mandel Flee the Angry Strangers 199: What happened to the dogs? How’d you beat the Law?
[NZ]D. Looser Boobslang [U. Canterbury D.Phil. thesis] 57/2: dog n. 4 a policeman, esp. a detective.

(b) (Aus./US, also doggy) an informer, a ‘stool pigeon’, a traitor; esp. one who betrays fellow criminals; thus underdogs[‘Note: [In N.Z. prisons] there are several tenns used by inmates that refer to different types of dogs, each one describing a kind of informer, e.g. chihuahua “a little dog who keeps yelping”' i.e. an informer who is always telling on other inmates over annoying little things, always giving the authorities petty scraps of information - persistent, but not particularly serious; puppy a “soft nark”, an informer who is not in the least harmful and is regarded as rather pathetic; rottweiler an informer who may cause harm to other inmates by constantly passing information about serious issues to the authorities, regarded as very dangerous’ Looser 2001].

[UK]C. Reade It Is Never Too Late to Mend 1 305: That sneaking dog Evans.
Age (MelboN.Z./urne) 13 Dec. 5/2: The acquisition of this object [i.e. an easy job] can only result from one course, begun earnestly, and continued unscrupulously: that is, of becoming a ‘dog.’ The Inspector General has his pack of dogs ; the Superintendent his dogs; the Chief Warder his.
[Aus]J. Furphy Such is Life 218: ‘I say, Collins — don’t split!’ ‘Is thy servant a dog that he should do this great thing?’.
[US]G.J. Kneeland Commercialized Prostitution in N.Y. City 149: Two plain clothes men, in passing a well-known hang-out, beckoned one of the owners [...] he returned, remarking to his comrades, ‘The ‘dogs’ are outside’. [Ibid.] 151: Every one of the ‘underdogs’ (i.e. plain clothes men) comes running to her every night with a different complaint.
[Aus] ‘Whisper All Aussie Dict.’ in Kings Cross Whisper (Sydney) xxxiv 4/3: dog: A prison informer [...] dog squad: Under cover wallopers. They live with criminals and molls. They never appear in court. They rely entirely on the stupidity and trust of the crims to gather information.
[NZ]J. McNeil Chocolate Frog 32: ‘[I]t ain’t just any sort of maggot who gets to be a dog ... only those that lag other people ... who cooperate with bastards in uniform ... see?’.
[US]E. Torres Carlito’s Way 139: So much for that lyin’ dog Joe B.
[Aus]R. Aven-Bray Ridgey-Didge Oz Jack Lang 24: Dog Prisoner informer.
[Aus]Smith & Noble Neddy (1998) 168: The dog squad [NSW surveillance police, named ‘dogs’ because they follow people around] were good at their job, too. I knew most of the dogs. I used to drink with them and I had a few friends in the squad.
[Aus]P. Temple Bad Debts (2012) [ebook] ‘Danny was a dog.’ [...] ‘Dog for who?’ ‘Drug squad. He’d dob anyone, every little twat he heard big-noting himself in a pub’.
[NZ]D. Looser Boobslang [U. Canterbury D.Phil. thesis] 57/2: dog n. 2 an informer, a nark.
[Aus]M.B. ‘Chopper’ Read Chopper 4 32: Being a dog in Risdon is no great problem [...] if you are a police informer [...] you can buy yourself all the friends and supporters you want with a gram of heroin.
[Aus]P. Temple Truth 135: ‘And then we’ve got him and he dobs the other pricks? Wow.’ ‘Wow?’ said Kiely. ‘Yes, wow. Wow, wow. He still gets twenty years [...] your fellow crims wait, they want to kill you, fuck you, they do so love a doggy’.
[Aus]G. Disher Kill Shot [ebook] ‘Does he think you’re a dog?’ ‘No comment’.
[Aus]D. Whish-Wilson Shore Leave 169: ‘I ain’t a dog.’ ‘You wouldn’t be snitching. You’d be sharing a rumour with me, your old sparring partner’.

(c) (Aus.) a plain-clothes detective, esp. working on the railways.

[Aus]Eve. News (Rockhampton, Qld) 27 May 3/1: Other curious names in everyday use' among criminals [are] ‘jacks’ (detectives), and ‘dogs’ (police shadowers, who dog the heels of suspects).
[Aus]Baker Popular Dict. Aus. Sl.

(d) (US black) a notably brutal police officer or prison officer.

[US]Goldin et al. DAUL 60/1: Dog, n. [...] 2. (P) An extremely harsh or brutal prison official.
[US] ‘Sl. of Watts’ in Current Sl. III:2.

(e) (US prison) in a women’s prison, an inmate who turns temporarily to homosexuality.

[US] in S. Harris Hellhole 239: True homosexuals [...] view the vast mass of House of Detention ‘jailhouse turnouts’ with a jaundiced eye, as is clearly revealed by the nicknames [...] ‘guttersnipers’ and ‘dogs’.

(f) (US prison) an older or tougher prisoner who exploits younger, weaker men as homosexual partners.

[US](con. 1950s) D. Goines Whoreson 193: That’s how some of the prisoners get a steady supply of punks, the dogs turn them out.
[UK]J. Carr Bad (1995) 85: They didn’t even bother talking to Doc, because they knew he was such a cold dog.

(g) (N.Z. prison) a general insult implying that the addressed person is considered contemptible.

[NZ]G. Newbold Big Huey 32: He started at me with eyes of hatred. “You’re a dog!” he shouted into my face. “You're a filthy bastard and a pig!”.
[NZ]D. Looser Boobslang [U. Canterbury D.Phil. thesis] 57/2: dog n. 3 a low, contemptible person.

(h) (US/N.Z. prison) a guard.

[US]Bentley & Corbett Prison Sl. 97: Pig […] police, prison guards and anyone in a position of authority. (Archaic: dog).
[NZ]D. Looser Boobslang [U. Canterbury D.Phil. thesis] 57/2: dog n. 5 a prison officer. the dogs are in! indicates that the officers have arrived to carry out a thorough search of an inmate's cell.

(i) (N.Z. prison) a member of the Mongrel Mob biker/prison gang.

Payne Staunch: Inside the Gangs 24: ‘We call ourselves Dogs [...] To 99 percent of people that would be an insult. [...] Dog, to us within ourselves, is an honourable thing. It's something to be proud of’.
[NZ]D. Looser Boobslang [U. Canterbury D.Phil. thesis] 57/2: dog n. 1 a member of the Mongrel Mob gang.

7. (also doggie) a sausage; also attrib.; thus dog roll, a hot dog.

[[US]‘Mark Twain’ Innocents Abroad 376: When it [i.e. a sausage] was done [...] a dog walked sadly in and nipped it. [...] and probably recognized the remnants of a friend].
[US]Courier-Jrnl (Louisville, KY) 30 Oct. 8/4: ‘Hot sau-sage! Hot sau-sage!’ [...] ‘Give me a dog,’ said a hungry newspaper man.
[US]R.C. Hartranft Journal of Solomon Sidesplitter 29: A sausage maker [...] is contually dunning us for a motto. The following, we hope, will suit him to a hair: ‘Love me, love my dog.’.
[UK]Farmer & Henley Sl. and Its Analogues.
[US]E.H. Babbitt ‘College Words & Phrases’ in DN II:i 32: doggie, n. [...] dog, n. Sausage.
[US]B. Fisher A. Mutt in Blackbeard Compilation (1977) 59: Oscar Frankfurter, dog inspector in a sausage factory.
[US]T. McNamara Us Boys 5 Feb. [synd. strip] I’ll bet a dollar she gigged that dog outer her — dellum-kumtesent’ store and slipped it to him.
[UK]N&Q 12 Ser. IX 346: Dogs. Sausages. ‘Dogs for breakfast, boys!’.
[US]Albuquerque Morn. Jrnl (NM) 9 Feb. 6/2: Most dealers protest that calling sausage ‘dog’ threatens to ruin their business.
[US]G. & S. Lorimer Stag Line 59: I don’t want mustard [...] just the dog.
[US]J.M. Cain Moth (1950) 50: A lot of dogs, butter, ground meat, pop and stuff on hand.
[US]R. Turner ‘Movie Night’ in Best of Manhunt (2019) [ebook] A few minutes later we all had our dogs and drinks and moved back away from the counters.
[Aus]F.J. Hardy Four-Legged Lottery 42: ‘All hot! Get your doggie,’ a white-aproned saveloy vendor shouted.
[US]J. Gelber On Ice 78: Truck drivers were [...] ordering, ‘Baked dog on white!! Don’t spare the mayo!’.
[UK]F. Norman Too Many Crooks Spoil the Caper 115: The spade caught me eyeing the bird as he sank his teeth into a dog.
[US]G.V. Higgins Patriot Game (1985) 66: I was sitting at the bar, having a dog, onions, mustard.
[UK](con. 1979–80) A. Wheatle Brixton Rock (2004) 150: He spotted a van selling hot dogs [...] ‘I have to go and get myself a dog roll.’.
[UK]Indep. Rev. 31 Mar. 18: The dogs [...] were tasty.
[US]T. Pluck Bad Boy Boogie [ebook] ‘No Rutt’s dogs [...] They went right through me’.

8. an unattractive woman or man.

[Aus]Sydney Sportsman (Surry Hills, NSW) 17 Oct. 2/3: To the good old days that were it was the custom for a woman who had an idea that she was beautiful to hire a hideous dog with buck teeth, a beard and a bent back to follow her wherever she went.
[US]R. Fisher Walls Of Jericho 116: That Nora Byle is a dog.
[US]J. Weidman I Can Get It For You Wholesale 203: I don’t like to have a bunch of dogs floating around. While I’m at it, I might as well hire something with a well-turned ass and a decently uplifted tit.
[US]Goldin et al. DAUL 60/1: Dog, n. [...] 3. A disloyal woman; a homely woman.
[US]Mad mag. Apr. 16: Boy, is she a dog [...] You can get a bad reputation going out with dogs like that.
[US]H. Selby Jr Last Exit to Brooklyn 88: Everybody was tellin the oldman and oldlady that it looked just likem (and man, the oldladys some dog!).
[US]J. Langone Life at the Bottom 81: Got some Playboy rejects, didn’t make the centrefold [...] they’re such dogs, almost guys.
[UK]J. Sullivan ‘Big Brother’ Only Fools and Horses [TV script] She’s a bit of an old dog, but there again you know I quite like old dogs.
[Aus]J. Morrison Share House Blues 67: flak.
[NZ]A. Duff One Night Out Stealing 104: Might be worth a try again some other time. Nah, too much of a dog to look at.
[Ire]P. Howard The Joy (2015) [ebook] [T]hree wagons who we used to call the Barking Dogs. Fat fuckin Sumo wrestlers, they were. They used to do this strip-tease thing for us, pulling their bras down and massaging their tits.
[Aus]R.G. Barrett Mud Crab Boogie (2013) [ebook] [S]he was that big a dog if you took her out anywhere you’d have to drive her around in an RSPCA wagon.
[UK]Observer 29 Aug. 2: Freddy Shepherd and vice-chairman Douglas Hall [...] condemned Newcastle women as ‘dogs’ during a drinking session.
[Aus]L. Redhead Peepshow [ebook] Shame to waste such a nice piece of arse. If you were more of a dog, who can say?
[Ire]P. Howard Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nightdress 6: Tina was a dog basically and I’m being hord on dogs there.
[US](con. 1973) C. Stella Johnny Porno 182: I know she’s a dog. Nobody cares, She can swallow a telephone pole.

9. (US black) something or someone unusual or surprising.

[US]R. Fisher Walls Of Jericho 206: ‘Well, what do y’ know ’bout that?’ ‘Ain’t this a dog?’ is a comment on anything unusual. [Ibid.] 299: dog Any extraordinary person, thing, or event. ‘Ain’t this a dog?’.
[US]TULIPQ (coll. B.K. Dumas) n.p.: That exam was a real dog.
[US]College Sl. Research Project (Cal. State Poly. Uni., Pomona) 🌐 The dog’s (adj.) Short for ‘The Dog’s Bollocks’; something very good.

10. (US black campus) a freshman.

[US]H. Sebastian ‘Negro Sl. in Lincoln University’ in AS IX:4 288: dog (also canine, hound, pup, and puppy). The usual and commonly applied term for a freshman.
[US]M.H. Boulware Jive and Sl.
[US]Wentworth & Flexner DAS 153/2: dog A college freshman; a new or inexperienced worker.

11. (US) an underdog (i.e. in a sporting encounter).

[US]D. Jenkins Life Its Ownself 79: ‘Last year the dogs covered fourteen out of the sixteen games [referee] Charlie Teasdale worked,’.
[US]D. Jenkins Rude Behavior 295: ‘When the going gets tough, always remember how the little pissant David was a forty-point dog when he went up against Goliath’.

12. an East Asian.

[UK]R. Milward Man-Eating Typewriter 115: ‘Glass collector in the Merchant navy. It’s a gook’s job. A dog’s job’.

13. see dog (end)

14. see dog (joint)

15. see dog-leg

16. see dog’s disease

17. see tin dog under tin adj.

In derivatives

doggish (adj.)

1. (US) second-rate.

[US]M. Bodenheim Sixty Seconds 51: It was a cheap, doggish job for anyone with the least brains.

2. (US black) obsessed with sex, lecherous; thus doggishly adv.

[[UK]Rowlands Martin Mark-all 27: For their liues they are dissolute in behauior, Apish, doggish, and Swinish, according to their disposition of ther bodies, flattering in speech, deceitful in words, and in Oathes not a diuell can surpasse them].
[UK]A. Baron Lowlife (2001) 71: I didn’t wink at him, or mutter any doggish remarks.
[US]C. Brown Manchild in the Promised Land (1969) 399: The old no-goodamn doggish husband of mine.
[US] ‘Sl. of Watts’ in Current Sl. III:2.
R. Charles Brother Ray 226: You don’t want to be doggish at a party. You don’t want to rush into things.
[US]W.T. Vollmann Whores for Gloria 51: Funny as the doggishly ugly faces of fortyish transvestite whores pursing their cheeks and loudly wolfwhistling at men.
[US]S. Bundle Extreme Danger 41: God knows, Mr. Big next door beat Justin hands down when it came to doggish lewdness.

In compounds

dog city (n.)

(N.Z. prison) territory ‘belonging’ to the Mongrel Mob biker/prison gang.

[NZ]D. Looser Boobslang [U. Canterbury D.Phil. thesis] 58/2: dog city n. a geographical region, prison or area of a prison that is perceived to be Mongrel Mob territory.
dog-list (n.)

(Aus. teen) a blacklist of the excluded.

[Aus](con. 1960s-70s) T. Taylor Top Fellas 23/2: The fact that sharps were invariably on the dog-list at mod/long-hair dances didn’t [...] foster good relations.

In phrases

beat the dog (v.)

to masturbate.

‘The Rant Archives’ Jan. on Yer Buddy BD’s Place 🌐 I like sex and strippers, pleated skirts and Mary Janes, cheap thrills like skirts on a windy day, bra-less women on a cold day, porn, ‘beating the dog’ and so on.
dog-eat-dog (n.)

(Aus.) an abusive term for a young woman.

[Aus]Lette & Carey Puberty Blues 75: Dog-eat-dog — pronounced ‘doggy-dooog’ which means a daggy girl — a girl wearing too much make-up, a girl who’s too fat or with scraggy hair or just plain ugly.
do the dog (v.)

1. (US) to show off, to strut about.

[US](con. WWI) H.F. Cruikshank ‘So This Is Flanders!’ Battle Stories July 🌐 Them ol’ No-man’s Land pirates was doin’ the heavy dog on the officer’s fancy smokes.
[US]C. Stroud Close Pursuit (1988) 231: You can bum a deck of smokes and generally do the dog around the crime scene, maybe piss off another mole?

2. see dog v.1 (3b)

go dog (v.)

1. (Aus.) to let down; to betray, to inform against.

[UK]Partridge DSUE (8th edn) 474/2: late C.19–20; by 1960 †.
[NZ]McGill Reed Dict. of N.Z. Sl. 88: go dog on To turn nasty on someone. Late C19 ANZ.

2. (Aus.) to act in an overtly sexual manner.

[Aus]‘Charles Barrett’ Address: Kings Cross 46: ‘Gee, look, there’s some kid going ‘dog’,’ Billie hissed. ‘Isn’t she something?’ The girl was standing about eighteen inches away from the boy, all dressed in black leather, and she was shaking; shaking, quivering and shivering with a frantic side to side, pelvic wiggle.

3. to work as an informer.

[Aus] D. Whish-Wilson ‘In Savage Freedom’ in Crime Factory: Hard Labour [ebook] My only other choice is to go to Mastic [...] Hope he can protect us. Or go dog for Ogilvie, and hope for the same.

4. (US) to be a coward.

[US]F.X. Toole Pound for Pound 149: He didn’t like it all, but he wasn’t about to go dog.
let the dog see the rabbit (v.)

to give someone a chance to get on with a task.

[UK]J. Harris Sea Shall Not Have Them 161: Shift your great carcase and let the dog see the rabbit.
[UK]H.E. Bates When the Green Woods Laugh (1985) 144: This was the right time, if ever, to let the dog see the rabbit.
[Aus]S. Gore Holy Smoke 52: How’s about givin’ a man a fair crack o’ the whip ... let the dog see the rabbit?
[UK]T. Stoppard Jumpers Act I: ‘Mind your back!’ ‘Out the way!’ ‘Let the dog see the rabbit!’.
D. Mosey Return of the Wardmaster 326: Now get out both of you, and let the dog see the rabbit.
[UK]J.J. Connolly Viva La Madness 23: Stop fuckin about and show the man. Let the dog see the rabbit.
[Aus](con. 1943) G.S. Manson Coorparoo Blues [ebook] [H]e needed a bit of space to let the dog see the rabbit.
lose one’s dog (v.)

(US) to lose control of a situation.

[US]Bulletin (SF) 22 Oct. 14/6: ‘Wha’d yu mean yu lost yu dog?’ was asked. ‘No, now, don’t say anything about that.’.
[US]S. Ford Shorty McCabe on the Job 4: Whatcher mean you lost your dog?
on the dog

1. unemployed, living as tramp.

[US]G. Milburn ‘A Pretty Cute Little Stunt’ in Brookhouser These Were Our Years (1959) 162: I’m on the dog, just a poor down-and-outer.

2. (Aus. prison) branded as an informer and thereafter ostracized.

[Aus]Tupper & Wortley Aus. Prison Sl. Gloss. 🌐 On the dog. To be identified as an informer and so to be ostracized.
play (the) dog (v.)

(US) to display oneself sexually, to act in an ostentatiously promiscuous manner.

[US]‘Iceberg Slim’ Mama Black Widow 229: Females sharing a cell would really play dog for the guys across the way.
put on (the) dog (v.) (also carry dog, dog (up), pile on dog, stick on dog, throw on dog)(orig. US)

1. to show off, to put on airs; to do something energetically, noisily; note ad hoc var. in cit. 1901.

[US]L.H. Bagg Four Years at Yale 44: Dog, style, splurge. To put on dog, is to make a flashy display, to cut a swell.
[US]M.H. Foote Coeur d’Alene 88: The old man puts on a heap o’ dog.
[US]W. Irwin Love Sonnets of a Hoodlum VI n.p.: Rubber, thou scab! Don’t throw on so much spaniel!
[US]A. Adams Log Of A Cowboy 243: Old Joe’s putting on as much dog as though he was asking the Colonel for his daughter.
[Aus]Sun. Times (Perth) 13 Nov. 1/1: One blatant upholder of Parliamentary ‘dog’ makes a point of bilking his creditors.
[US]Ade ‘The Fable of the Misdirected Sympathy’ in True Bills 102: The only thing that makes me Sore is to think that all of this Hot Dog you’re throwin’ on comes out of the Pockets of poor, hard-workin’ Guys, such as me.
[Aus]Sun. Times (Perth) 25 Dec. 1/1: On a two-ten-a-week screw he puts on dog enough for a duke.
[US]H. Green Actors’ Boarding House (1906) 58: My heavings, I wisht you’d see the dog Smathers an’ Holler puts on.
[UK]Sporting Times 15 Apr. 2/3: What ho, with yer ‘Bond Street’! Throwin’ on a heap o’ dog, ain’t yer, Joe?
[Aus]Sun. Times (Perth) 30 Sept. 4/8: Wouldn’t we pile on the pup— / My Kerlonial oath, we would!
[NZ]‘A Cronk Camp’ Truth (Wellington) 19 Jan. 5: This Dusky Colored Cove put on a considerable amount of ‘dog’.
[Aus]Bulletin (Sydney) 15 Dec. 19/2: Most people as come from there goes to a cheap boarding-house, and has their letters addressed to some swell hotel, and calls round there twice a day to buy a drink an’ put on dorg.
[US]S. Ford Torchy 53: She didn’t try to carry any dog; but just blazes ahead and spiels out the talk.
[Aus]Sport (Adelaide) 9 Oct. 5/3: Alice W should not stick on so much dorg [...] even if her mtoher is a retired washerwoman.
[Aus]C.J. Dennis ‘The Intro’ in Songs of a Sentimental Bloke 19: But strike! The way she piled on dawg! Yer’d think / A bloke was givin’ backchat to the Queen.
[Aus]E. Dyson Missing Link 🌐 Ch. ii: You could alwiz put on dog. You sold flathead, Jinny, but I give the devil his due – you did it like a duchess.
[US]J. Callahan Man’s Grim Justice 52: Red was a great fellow for putting on the dog.
[US]W. Winchell On Broadway 2 Jan. [synd. col.] The lone male escort was putting on plenty of dog, making an impression on his lady friends.
[Aus]T. Wood Cobbers 102: Cars carry such extravagant cargoes that I believe you might go about this casual friendly land with a puma on the running board, and be accused of nothing worse than ‘putting on dog’.
[UK]J. Curtis There Ain’t No Justice 164: Well, they’ve got up to a lot of hankey-pankey, you know, worshipping the devil, putting on a lot of dog, and raising the dead and all that caper.
[US]S. Lewis Kingsblood Royal (2001) 5: My, my, don’t they put on the dog in – what’s the name of this town again?
[US] in M. Daly Profile of Youth 142: It’s silly to dog up a car with signs and coon tails.
[US]B. Appel Sweet Money Girl 64: My supervisor thought Maxie was somebody, the way she was putting on the dog.
[US]P. Rabe Murder Me for Nickels (2004) 29: Jack [...] you don’t have to put on the dog for Mister Stonewall.
[UK]G. Lambert Inside Daisy Clover (1966) 160: Melora joins us and has obviously gotten over it, she couldn’t put on more dog.
[UK]K. Bonfiglioli Don’t Point That Thing at Me (1991) 133: I did not hesitate. It was time to put on a bit of dog.
[US]H. Rawson Dict. of Invective (1991) 120: Others may sneer at those who put on the dog by getting all dressed up.
[US]S. Morgan Homeboy 299: Everyone put on the Big Dog.
[US]R. Mihalko Road Kill 27: Oh my God, she’s really putting on the dog tonight. She reserves that bell for special occasions.

2. to have sexual intercourse.

[US]D. Goines Swamp Man 62: He went down to the Wilson’s plantation and put on the dog.
stroke the dog (v.)

to have sexual intercourse.

[UK]Merry Maid of Islington 15: isa.: I have but one doubt. marg.: What may be that I am not a Gentlewoman, you shall know that there’s many a Gentlewoman has stroakt the Dog.
take the dog for a walk (v.) (also water the dog) [the euph. excuse one makes when leaving the room]

(US) to urinate or to defecate.

[US]C. Himes ‘Naturally, the Negroin Coll. Stories 383: ‘We go too, Kitten, but first I got to water the dog’ Pays went upstairs to the toilette.
[US]C. Himes Pinktoes (1989) 82: Wallace went once more to water the dog.
[UK]J. McDonald Dict. of Obscenity etc. 20: Business Shit [...] Other euphemisms comparable in their evasiveness include do one’s duty, take the dog for a walk.
[NZ]McGill Reed Dict. of N.Z. Sl. 207: take the dog for a walk To urinate. ANZ.
turn dog (v.) (Aus.)

1. to become an informer, to inform on.

[Aus]Bulletin (Sydney) 24 Jan. 14/1: The Canadians have ‘turned dog,’ to use an inelegant but expressive vulgarism, upon their pet.
[Aus]Bulletin (Sydney) 29 Oct. 8/1: All the Powers seem to be against [the French], and – last hope of all – Councillor Peterkin [...] ‘turns dog’ on them.
[Aus]‘Rolf Boldrewood’ Robbery Under Arms (1922) 36: Are you going to turn dog, now that you know the way in?
[Aus]Bulletin (Sydney) 2 Aug. 10/1: O Blessed Interpreter! / Scene – Suburban Police-court / [...] Witness: ‘Why, he meant he’d biff me if I squealed or turned dorg on him.’.
[Aus]‘Rolf Boldrewood’ In Bad Company 43: They’ve turned dog on the squatters as trusted ’em.
[Aus]J. Furphy Such is Life 202: ‘You should be loyal to your employ,’ replied Smythe severely. ‘Meanin’ I shouldn’t turn dog?’.
[Aus]L. Stone Jonah 45: W’y, y’ain’t goin’ ter turn dawg on me, Jonah, are yez?
[Aus]W.H. Downing Digger Dialects 51: turn dog (vb.) — Deceive [...] betray.
[Aus](con. WWI) A.G. Pretty Gloss. Sl. [...] in the A.I.F. 1921–1924 (rev. t/s) n.p.: turn dog. Betray.
[Aus]K. Tennant Battlers 274: Old Sharkey turned dog on us, didn’t he, Bet? Said he’d get me for abduction.

2. to let down, to ‘bite the hand that feeds you’.

[Aus]Truth (Sydney) 17 Mar. 1/6: We find men, who were returned to secure justice for the poor, ‘turning dog’ on the toilers as soon as they fancy their own interest is in danger.
[Aus]J. Furphy Buln-Buln and the Brolga (1948) 🌐 It makes me shiver to think about turnin’ dog on sich nice people as these is.
[Aus]Bulletin (Sydney) 22 Sept. 13/1: You may do everything in the world for a Kanaka – you may even save his life; but he will always turn dog on you sooner or later – generally sooner. If it is later – well, he turns more dog to make up for the delay.
[NZ]Eve. Post (Wellington) 19 Dec. 19/6: I could go on livin’ [...] for ’nother twenty year’ — o’ course if me old ticker doesn’t turn dog on me.
[Aus](con. WWI) L. Mann Flesh in Armour 248: ‘The push’s broke. That bastard McCann turned dog on us’.
[UK]J. Campbell Babe is Wise 95: Turning dog on me, are you, eh, you little Yiddish rotter!

3. to become unkind (and treat someone cruelly).

[Aus]Bulletin (Sydney) 5 July 13/3: My husband watched, found me out and kicked me into the street. I appealed singly to the lodgers, but both turned dog, and refused to assist me either with money or advice.
[Aus]Sport (Adelaide) 17 July 3/7: Why has Frank N. turned dog on Sarah D .

4. to abandon, to give up on.

[Aus]Sun. Times (Perth) 12 Mar. 4/7: He turned dog on his favorite pastime of jumping over balconies and diving through plate-glass saloon doors, and went in instead for establishing records in the matter of smashing up sundry brands of vehicles.

5. to betray; to take a bribe.

[Aus]Bulletin (Sydney) 6 Oct. 10/3: [T]hey had received 2s. 6d. each to run stiff, and had been entrusted with treasure to the amount of 7s. 6d. with which to stiffen three other footballers. As one of the men who was to turn dog for 2s. 6d. was a crack player, [...] it was felt that the square thing hadn’t been done.

SE in slang uses

In derivatives

dogways (adv.)

having sexual intercourse in the rear-entry position.

[US]T.B. Haber ‘Canine Terms Applied to Human Beings’ in AS XL:2 94: dog. To copulate on all fours. Hence dogways.
[US]H. Rawson Dict. of Invective (1991) 122: The copulation probably should be accomplished in the position variously known as dog fashion, dog-style, or dog-ways.

In compounds

dog-ass/-assed

see separate entries.

dog-botherer (n.)

one who allegedly has sexual relations with dogs.

[UK]M. Herron Joe Country [ebook] ‘Fuck-ups, basket-cases, druggies and drunks [...] When I’ve got a dog-botherer I win a case of cutlery’.
dogbox (n.)

see separate entry.

dog-breath (n.) (orig. US)

1. bad breath.

[US](con. c.1944) Kaplan & Smith One Last Look 89: Others elected to make a different sort of statement. Witness ‘Dog Breath’ [illus. of USAF B-17].
[US]H. Rawson Dict. of Invective (1991) 120: dogbreath. Bad breath, a.k.a. halitosis.
iVillage.co.uk 🌐 There’s hardly a bigger turn-off than bad breath. [...] So, what can be done to combat dog breath?

2. one who has bad breath; thus an offensive person.

[US] oral testimony in Lighter HDAS I.
[US]Chicago Trib. 10 Aug. 🌐 Hey, dog breath, get outta town [headline] No halitosis allowed in our ’hood — Chicago has a reputation to uphold.
dogcart (n.)

(Aus.) a police car.

[Aus]T. Wood Cobbers 144: [footnote] Because the ‘dog-cart’ removes him to a place of detention.
[Aus]W. Dick Bunch of Ratbags 76: Crikey, this is orright, ridin’ in the dog-cart and in the front, too. If the boys could only see us now, eh, Laurie?
dog-collar (n.)

1. the reversed collar worn by clergymen; thus dog-collared adj.

[UK]Temple Bar I 386: He is acquainted with [...] the clerical High-Church nephew who wears a stiff-starched dog-collar instead of a cravat .
[UK]W. Bradwood O.V.H. II 169: Choked in a white tie and dog-collar.
[US]Interior Jrnl (Stanford, KY) 4 Aug. 1/5: Wear no perpetual dog-collar [...] Support no scoundrelism.
[UK]E.C. Grenville-Murray People I have Met 42: The dog-collar which rose above the black cloth was of spotless purity.
[US](con. 1910s) D. Mackenzie Hell’s Kitchen 137: I [...] garbed myself in a ‘dog collar’ and silk stock.
[UK] C. Fluck ‘Bubbles’ of the Old Kent Road 5: I am no saint. I wear no dog collar or uniform.
[UK]C. Harris Death of a Barrow Boy 149: An afternoon at Lords was not much in his line [...] the linen-frocked, the dog-collared and the panama-hatted.
[Aus]D. Maitland Breaking Out 85: He slowly removed his white dog-collar.
[SA]C. Hope Separate Development 83: Splendid in his new, black, clerical walking-out suit and gleaming dog-collar.
[UK]A. Higgins Donkey’s Years 149: Whereupon the Razz [...] had torn off his dog-collar, spat on his hands, squared up to the impertinent anti-Christ.

2. a choker necklace.

[UK]Daily News 9 June 9/1: Another lady wore [...] a dog collar of pearls and diamonds .
[US]L. Sanders Anderson Tapes 215: Victorian tiaras, bracelets, ‘dog collars,’ headache bands, pins, brooches.

3. (N.Z. prison) a Home Detention bracelet .

[NZ]D. Looser Boobslang [U. Canterbury D.Phil. thesis] 58/2: dog collar n. a Home Detention bracelet.
dog-days (n.) [SE dog-day, an evil time, a period in which malignant influences prevail; lit. the rising of the Dog Star]

a menstrual period.

[UK]E. Pugh Cockney At Home 260: And I like him to sound his aitches [...] and not to get purple in the face when he calls for me in the dog days.
[US]Wentworth & Flexner DAS 153/2: dog days the days when a woman is menstruating.
[US]Dahlskog Dict. Contemp. and Colloq. Usage.
[US]H. Rawson Dict. of Invective (1991) 121: If a woman is said to be in her dog days, then she is menstruating. The idea is that she is especially bitchy at this time.
dog-driver (n.) [the term sneers at the police officer, giving him the lowly task of driving off stray dogs]

(W.I.) a police officer.

[US]C. McKay Constab Ballads 37: [song title] De Dog-Driver’s Frien’.
[UK]D. Powis Signs of Crime 181: Dog driver Policeman, used in an insulting or contemptuous context (West Indian).
dog (end) (n.) [? SE docked end]

1. the last fraction of a cigarette; thus phr. dog-ends on, please give me the last fraction of your cigarette.

[UK]M. Harrison Spring in Tartarus 298: He had given up relying on the arduous collecting of ‘dogs’ (as the ends are called), from public highways.
[UK]J. Curtis They Drive by Night 17: He had no more dog-ends in his pockets.
[Ire](con. 1940s) B. Behan Borstal Boy 198: Dog-ends on you, Paddy.
[UK]E. Bond Saved Scene vi: ’Oo’s bin chuckin’ big dog ends? [...] ’Ardly bin lit.
[UK]Galton & Simpson ‘The Desperate Hours’ Steptoe and Son [TV script] I’ve got some dog ends you can roll up.
[UK] (ref. to1940s) R. Barnes Coronation Cups and Jam Jars 139: I used to put the kettle on, make a cuppa and light one of Mum’s dog ends.
[Ire]J. Healy Grass Arena (1990) 31: They seemed to be kinky about tobacco and anyone caught with even a dog-end would get a good beating.
[UK]G. Burn Happy Like Murderers 339: He’d screw up the dog-ends and put them in his donkey-jacket pocket.
[UK]Guardian G2 13 June 13: Ray eyeing up dog-ends as though there were some answer in their alignment.
[UK]J. Fagan Panopticon (2013) 250: My mouth tastes like dog-ends.

2. in fig. use, anything small or insignificant.

[UK]G. Kersh They Die with Their Boots Clean 186: There is a kind of closet containing a bar scarcely more than three feet long. This dog-end of a space belongs to the group.
dog-English (n.)

illiterate, ungrammatical English; slang.

[Scot]Stirling Observer 22 Apr. n.p.: There are many young men who seem to consider it essential to manliness that they should be masters of slang [...] but this dog-English [is] threatening the entire extinction of genuine English!
[US]G.W. Moon Dean’s Eng. xiv: We speak of ‘dog-Latin’; what more appropriate name than ‘dog-English’ could be given to ungentlemanly language like this and how could we better serve the interests of literature than by hooting all such ‘dog-English’ out of society?
dogface (n.) (also dawgface)

1. (US) an unpleasant person; a term of abuse; thus adjs. dogfaced, dawg-faced, stupid-looking, ugly [prior use from mid-19C in nicknames for specific individuals (see HDAS)].

[[UK]M. Pix Beau Defeated II i: Heark-yee, you Sneak-nose, Hounds-face, you have Affronted my Master].
[UK]E. Greey Queen’s Sailors III 90: You precious half-starved, dog-faced, greasy-looking miserables, what are you kow-towing there for?
[UK]N. Devon Jrnl 12 Jan. 2/5: The prisoner [was] coarsely abusing him in an undertone, such words as ‘dog-face’ and ‘d— rogue’ being occasionally audible .
[US]Dos Passos Three Soldiers 401: We all call her the dawg-faced girl.
[US]J. Conroy World to Win 238: Now I’ll find Dogface and sock ’im so hard his shirt tail ’ll roll up his back like a window blind.
[Aus]R. Park Poor Man’s Orange 41: Motty waved her soapy paw like a sceptre at her father and said, ‘Dogface!’.
[UK]W. Eyster Far from the Customary Skies 127: Push them around like a dog face, handle them like a bus driver.
[US] in T.I. Rubin Sweet Daddy 8: This here big party we ran. I invited only the local dog faces [...] just dog-faced chicks.
[US]E. Dahlberg Olive of Minerva 144: Your dog-faced truisms.
[UK]S. Berkoff East in Decadence and Other Plays (1985) 49: Put the boot in with shrieks of ‘bollocks, slerp! Dog face and fucking hell’.
[US]N.Y. Times 6 Feb. n.p.: She [...] referred to two of his most ardent supporters as Dog Face and Ham Hocks [R].
[UK]Guardian 14 Dec. 24: Dogfaced gits!
[Aus](con. 1943) G.S. Manson Irish Fandango [ebook] ‘You and ya dog-faced mate here were all over me’.

2. (US, also dogface grunt) a soldier, an infantryman; thus adjs. dogfaced, dawgfaced[coined as an insult by members of the US Marine Corps, who look down on infantrymen. Allegedly from the old Cheyenne War Society in the Plains Wars, who called themselves Dog Soldiers; the Cavalry took it from them].

[US] in Our Army Dec. 27: These guys are dawg faced soldiers / The same as me an’ you.
[US]Army and Navy Register (US) 18 Nov. 3/2: A ‘Dogface’ is a soldier in the Regular Army.
[US](con. 1943–5) A. Murphy To Hell and Back (1950) 30: Please let me be a dogface. I’m a fightin’ fool.
[US](con. 1950) E. Frankel Band of Brothers 26: You know that. And I know it. And every marine and dogface around here knows it.
[US](con. 1944) E.M. Nathanson Dirty Dozen (2002) 114: Just another dogfaced sucker.
[US](con. WWII) T. Sanchez Hollywoodland (1981) 72: If I wasn’t over the hill as a good dogface, what i would give to get a crack at these [...] Jap bastards.
[UK](con. WWII) S. Hynes Flights of Passage 209: In the Army they were called Doggies, which was short of Dog-faces.
[US]J. Wambaugh Finnegan’s Week 38: Having served in Korea as a dogface grunt.
[US]E. Weiner Drop Dead, My Lovely (2005) 75: When the dogface grunts ignore the word from upstairs the system gets FUBAR.
dog-fight (n.) (US)

a fistfight, a brawl.

[Aus]Bulletin (Sydney) 17 Oct. 22/1: ‘And do you [...] take this man for your wedded husband?’ / ‘No, I do not,’ she yelled at the top of her voice. ‘I wouldn’t be seen with him at a dog-fight.’.
[US](con. 1914–18) L. Nason Three Lights from a Match 37: ‘Dog fight,’ answered Spike [...] ‘Bunch of Jerry planes meet up with a bunch of ours and they go to it.’.
[UK]D.L. Sayers Nine Tailors (1984) 291: There was every prospect of a legal dogfight.
[US] (ref. to 1880) C.J. Lovell ‘The Background of Mark Twain’s Vocab.’ in AS XXII:2 90: dog-fight. (Both the OED, 1913, and the DAE, 1923, show a transferred sense, ‘general shindy, melee,’ without noting Twain’s similar use, 1880, in the appendix to A Tramp Abroad.).
[US]H. Rawson Dict. of Invective (1991) 121: dogfight. A melee, a free-for-all, whether among people, airplanes, or dogs.
[US]D. Jenkins You Gotta Play Hurt 96: ‘I tell you what,’ he said. ‘Gonna be a dogfight. [...] It’s gonna be hoss on hoss, is all it is’.
[US]D. Jenkins Rude Behavior 387: ‘I don’t need to tell you we’re in this dogfight. We got us a chance to write sports history’.
dogfood (n.)

see separate entries.

dogfuck/fucker/fucking

see separate entries.

dog-heart (n.)

(W.I. Rasta) a person who is especially cold and cruel.

[UK]A. Wheatle Dirty South 71: Red Eyes was a dogheart and he always will be.
dog hours (n.)

(US) a late-night/early-morning shift.

[US]J.T. Farrell ‘The Benefits of American Life’ in Short Stories (1937) 225: In the early dog hours of the mornings when there were scarcely any spectators.
[US](con. 1920s) J.T. Farrell Judgement Day in Studs Lonigan (1936) 699: She stuck it out through the dog hours of the night.
doghouse (n.)

see separate entry.

dog (joint) (n.) [SE hot dog + joint n. (3b)]

(US, also dog) a cheap restaurant, a hot dog stand.

[US]J.J. Finerty Criminalese 16: Dog joint — Place where sausages and sandwiches are sold.
Cornell (University) Alumni News 1 Apr. 337: Half a century ago, your historian took his meals at Hank Norwood’s dog [W&F].
dog-knotted (adj.)

for two lovers to be locked together during intercourse because of a vaginal muscle spasm brought on by a sudden shock.

SOL ‘She’ll Be Puffin’ Like a Steam Train When She Cums’ posted on 4 Jan. on Toledo MudHen Hash House Harriers 🌐 She’ll be screaming like a banshee when she cums / She’ll be howling like a she-wolf when she cums / You’ll be dogknotted for an hour when she cums.
dog-leg (n.) (also dog) [the twists in which the tobacco was sold, which resembled a dog’s leg; also attrib]

(US) second-rate tobacco.

National Intelligencer 10 July 3/3: A large quantity of ‘dog-leg’ tobacco and red pepper is then thrown into the tub [DA].
[US]R.F. Burton City of the Saints 101: A large quantity of ‘dog-leg’ tobacco and red pepper is then added.
[US]T.F. Upson diary 29 May in Winther With Sherman to the Sea (1958) 113: He gave me some dog leg tobacco.
[US](con. c.1840) ‘Mark Twain’ Huckleberry Finn 70: I had my pipe en a plug er dog-leg, en some matches in my cap.
M.E. Ryan A Pagan of the Alleghanies 25: Then the black-and-tan man treated himself to a fresh chew of ‘dog-leg’ [DA].
[US]A. Adams ‘Rangering’ in Cattle Brands 🌐 I’ll bet a twist of dog, [...] that prisoner with the black whiskers sabes English.
dog licence (n.)

(Aus.) a certificate of exemption from the prohibition of alcohol to Native Australians (under the Aborigines Protection Act 1909–43) that permits them to buy a drink in a hotel.

[Aus]F.B. Vickers Mirage (1958) 248: Monty wants us to get the dog licence – that’s the paper they give you. [...] If we had this paper, me and you could have walked into that pub and stood at the bar all day and none of ’em could have said a word to us.
[Aus] in K. Gilbert Living Black 297: Before the 1967 referendum, before citizenship, Aborigines could receive these exemption cards — dog certificates — which enabled them to enter a hotel.
[Aus]J. Miller Koori 174: The exemption certificates were regarded by most Kooris as a disgusting form of paternalism and were commonly known as ‘dog licences’. A Koori had to ‘behave’ to get the dog licence.

In compounds

dog-mouth (v.)

(US black) to abuse verbally.

[US]T.R. Houser Central Sl. 19: dog mouth To bad rap [...] ‘Don’t dog mouth me man; I can’t ‘G’ for dat’.
dog music (n.)

(Aus.) howling (of a wounded person).

[Aus]Bulletin (Sydney) 10 Aug. 36/2: The man who sits up after being hit and makes dog-music over his cut is a blight on the army. I’ve seen a company wiped out because it let a wounded man howl, and his noise smothered the ‘creep-up’ of 500 Filipinos through the cane.
dogpaddle (v.)

(US) to have anal intercourse.

[US](con. WWII) J.O. Killens And Then We Heard The Thunder (1964) 339: Me and my old lady, whewee – we did a rear maneuver that made the moon start shining in the other direction, and then I backed into it, dog-paddling, and she moaned and groaned.
dogpatch (n.) [Dogpatch, the hillbilly settlement in which the syndicated cartoon strip by Al Capp, L’il Abner (1934–77), takes place]

(US) a small town or hamlet.

[US]B. Moyers Listening to America 338: Since he was defeated four years ago Faubus has been head of Dogpatch, U.S.A., a kind of Ozark Disneyland, which has been a commercial success. [...] if he wins, they believe, one day the whole world will be Dogpatch and they will be free.
[US]H. Rawson Dict. of Invective (1991) 306: Dog Patch (cartoonist Al Capp’s updating of dog town).
[US](con. Vietnam War) G.R. Clark Words of the Vietnam War 149/1: Dogpatch GI nickname for the Vietnamese shanty towns that sprung up outside the gates of many U.S. base camps.
[US]B. Gifford Night People 37: ‘I been around,’ Jasper said. ‘Dogpatch USA.’.
dogpile (v.)

(US) for a group of people to leap on a single individual; thus also as n.

[US] in T. Shibutani Derelicts of Company K (1978) 273: One of them commented [...] ‘He can either take a beating from one man or [...] be dogpiled by a dozen men’.
[US]‘Joe Bob Briggs’ Joe Bob Goes to the Drive-In 22: If somebody were to say ‘Dogpile on Kevin’ and then thirty guys sat on Kevin, then Kevin would be the wimp.
[US]Hope College ‘Dict. of New Terms’ 🌐 dogpile n. The act of ten or more males jumping upon one victim in a centralized location. The dogpile is done to commemorate a special event like a date or a birthday, or it can be done to teach someone a lesson.
[US](con. 1964–8) J. Ellroy Cold Six Thousand 60: Commotion. Dogpile. The gunman’s down. He’s disarmed. He’s pinned flat.
[US]J. Ellroy Widespread Panic 283: Somebody Jap-jumped me. A dogpile ensued.
[US](con. 1962) J. Ellroy Enchanters 121: They cursed and screeched. They got up and dogpiled me.
dogpiss

see separate entries.

dog pound (n.)

(N.Z. prison) a solitary confinement cell.

[NZ]D. Looser Boobslang [U. Canterbury D.Phil. thesis] 58/2: dog pound n. = pound, the sense 1.
dog-puncher (n.)

one who drives a team of dogs.

[US]E. Robins Magnetic North 154: No dog-puncher who knows what he’s about travels when his quick goes dead.
dog-robber (n.)

see separate entry.

dog roll (n.)

(N.Z. prison) a meat pattie, luncheon sausage or meatload that blends lunceon sausage and vegetables.

[NZ]D. Looser Boobslang [U. Canterbury D.Phil. thesis] 58/2: dog roll n. a meat pattie, a roll of luncheon sausage, or a meatloaf made from luncheon sausage and mixed vegetables.
dog’s... (n.)

see also separate entries.

dog’s abuse (n.)

(Irish) harsh verbal criticism.

[Ire]L. O’Flaherty Informer n.p.: Yer ol’ man gev me dog’s abuse and drov’ me outa the house .
[Ire]Irish Times 23 Sept. 🌐 After years of dogs’ abuse directed at ‘the feminists’ for saddling women in the homes with a terrible inferiority complex, suddenly the shoe is on the other foot .
dog’s age (n.)

(US) a very long time, usu. as phr in a dog’s age.

[US]Knickerbocker (N.Y.) VII 17: That blamed line gale has kept me in bilboes such a dog’s age.
[UK]Magnet 10 July 11: The gun hadn’t been loaded in a dog’s age.
[US]E. O’Neill Anna Christie Act I: I ain’t seen Chris in a dog’s age.
[Aus]Sun (Sydney) 26 Feb. 6/5: Felix Nella, yer see, ’adn’t won a race for a dog’s age; though, mind yer, the good coin ’ud been planked down dozens of times.
[Aus]K. Tennant Foveaux 311: Where you been lately, Curly? Haven’t seen you in a dog’s age.
[US]Chicago Sun. Trib. 8 Jun. [comics] 3: You know darn well you haven’t turned on a smile for me in a dog’s age! [DA].
[US]E. Brown Trespass 36: We haven’t seen you in a dog’s age.
[US](con. 1940s) M. Dibner Admiral (1968) 78: Haven’t seen her in a dog’s age.
[US]R. Price Ladies’ Man (1985) 239: I haven’t hung out and bombed around in a dog’s age.
[US]H. Rawson Dict. of Invective (1991) 122: dog’s age. A long time.
[US]T. Pluck ‘Hot Rod Heart’ in Life During Wartime 96: Bobby hadn’t rumbled in a dog’s age, but these kids looked soft.
[US]J. Hannaham Didn’t Nobody Give a Shit 161: ‘I has not seened my girl in a dog’s age!’.
dog-salmon aristocracy (n.)

(US) one who thinks they are superior to their peers.

(ref. to 1880s) M. Morgan Skid Road 84: The oratory of Populists like Mary Kenworthy, who was belaboring the business man’s backers with such salty epithets as ‘our dog-salmon aristocracy.’.
dog’s bottom (n.)

a joc. form of address.

[US]T.B. Haber ‘Canine Terms Applied to Human Beings’ in AS XL:2 95: dog’s bottom. A term of jocular address.
dog’s chance (n.)

the smallest possible chance; usu. in negative uses.

[US]Spirit of the Times (N.Y.) 27 Aug. 301: Wagner [i.e. a racehorse] [...] never had a decent dog’s chance [HDAS].
Report of the Joint Select Committee (appointed to inquire into the condition of affairs in the late insurrectionary states) 584: ‘Wilson, you have fished for me a long time before you got me to say a word; you know what I told you, and you say it is true.’ I said, ‘Give me a dog’s chance; let me and you settle it between us, or let me quit the State.’.
[UK]Chambers’s Jrnl 7 556: He couldn’t have a dog's chance of getting through in any circumstances. What an ass he must be.
[UK]‘Blinkhoolie’ Blairmount 103: The French form is said to be very moderate; but no, he can't have a dog's chance.
[US]Mt Sterling Advocate (KY) 24 Feb. 1/5: [They] are hoping that the licensed saloon will be legislated out of business so that they can have a dog’s chance to be men.
‘Taffrail Stand By! [ebook] The trawlers, poor chaps, hadn’t a dog's chance of getting away.
[UK]E. Raymond Tell England (1965) 175: I suppose – I haven’t a dog’s chance. Find out if – I’m done for.
[UK]J.B. Priestley Good Companions 350: Not a dog’s chance! They give ’em a bit of rope and then – got him!
[UK]J. Curtis Gilt Kid 275: ‘You’ve got just two chances of that, son.’ ‘Yes, I get you. A dog’s chance and no chance at all.’.
[UK]S. Horler Lady with the Limp 175: He hadn’t a dog’s chance to get out of his present predicament.
[UK]Wodehouse Mating Season 149: There’s a dog’s chance of my being able to swallow a mouthful.
[Aus](con. 1936–46) K.S. Prichard Winged Seeds (1984) 298: They hadn’t a dog’s chance against the up-to-date bombers and fighters the japs were usin’.
[Aus]D. Martin Hero of Too 252: You haven’t a dog’s chance.
[US]H. Rawson Dict. of Invective (1991) 122: dog’s chance. The worst possible chance.
dog’s dinner (n.)

see separate entry.

dog’s disease (n.) (also dog)

(Aus.) one of a variety of illnesses, e.g. influenza, malaria, a hangover.

Braidwood Dispatch 30 Apr. 2/2: They complain in the first instance of a pain in the head [...] It is very similar to the epidemic we had some years ago which went by the names of the ‘Temora rot’ and the ‘dog’s disease.’ [AND].
[Aus]Sydney Sportsman (Surry Hills, NSW) 6 July 4/1: A . large number of decent sports have been battling with the ‘dog’s disease,’ called influenza.
[Aus]L. Mann Flesh in Armour 218: Half the platoon had had dog’s disease.
[Aus] Baker Aus. Speaks 166: Dog’s disease, malaria.
[Aus] ‘Whisper All Aussie Dict.’ in Kings Cross Whisper (Sydney) xxxiv 4/3: dog’s disease: Influenza.
[Aus]N. Keesing Lily on the Dustbin 77: ‘Dog’s disease’ to some people means ’flu, to others gastro-enteritis.
dog’s eye (n.) [rhy. sl.]

(Aus.) a meat pie.

[Aus]N. Cummins Adventures of the Honey Badger [ebook] The orders [...] usually consisted of a rat coffin or a leper in a sleeping bag (sausage rolls), maggot bag, dog’s eye or mystery bag (pies), dead horse (tomato sauce) and battery acid (cola).
dog’s head (n.)

(US) a variety of beer.

[US]F. Norris Vandover and the Brute (1914) 81: Bring me a stringy rabbit and a pint of dog’s-head.
[US]A.H. Lewis ‘Hamilton Finnerty’s Heart’ in Sandburrs 64: I can now relax an’ toin meself to Gin, Dog’s Head and a general whizz.
dogshit

see separate entries.

dog’s licence (n.) [a dog’s licence cost 7s 6d (37½p)]

the sum of seven shillings and sixpence.

[UK]Partridge DSUE (8th edn) 325/2: from ca. 1930.
dog’s lunch (n.)

(US gay) a notably unattractive and socially unacceptable individual.

[US]Homosexuality & Citizenship in Florida 24: Glossary of Homosexual Terms [...] dog’s lunch: Either a normal person or a gay person whose looks and actions are unattractive to the point of non-association.
dog’s match (n.) [the brevity of the intercourse and the lack of privacy of mating dogs]

sex in the open air, spec. by the wayside; thus to make a dog’s match of it, to have sex in the open air, to have spontaneous sex.

[UK]Partridge DSUE (1984) 325/2: C.19–20.
[UK]Roger’s Profanisaurus in Viz 87 Dec. n.p.: dog’s match n. Any sexual encounter in public place, in bushes, doorways, under lamp posts etc.
dog’s mouth (n.)

(US) a tight vagina.

[US]Trimble 5000 Adult Sex Words and Phrases 65: dog’s mouth (Vulg.) A Vagina over which a female has such muscular control as to produce pleasurable movements during Coitus, and which is also small and tight usually. See One That Bites.
dog’s paw (n.)

(US gang) a tattoo comprising a triangle of three dots, indicating gang membership.

N.Y. Press 30 Oct.–5 Nov. 10/2: Besides the wearing of the red, some Bloods will have a triangular three-dot tattoo (a dog’s paw).
dog’s rig (n.) [SE rig, a romp; i.e. the observation of dogs mating]

sexual intercourse taken to exhaustion, followed by mutual disinterest.

[UK]Grose Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue ms. additions n.p.: Dog’s Rig. To copulate till you are tired, &then turn your A—se to it.
[UK]Grose Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue (2nd, 3rd edn) n.p.: Dog’s Rig. To copulate till you are tired, and then turn tail to it.
[UK]Lex. Balatronicum.
[UK]Egan Grose’s Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue.
dog’s show (n.) [dog’s chance ]

(Aus.) no chance at all.

[Aus]Bulletin (Sydney) 3 Nov. 13/2: In the teeth of this the man whose son stayed here, fighting for Australia with a pick or an axe, is not supposed to have a dog’s show.
[NZ]D. Davin For the Rest of Our Lives 88: We haven’t a dog’s show of getting through once it’s light.
[NZ]P. Wilson N.Z. Jack 107: Gil knew he didn’t have a dog’s show.
[NZ]McGill Reed Dict. of N.Z. Sl. 144: not a dog’s show No chance.
dog’s soup (n.) [post-19C use is US]

1. rainwater.

[UK]Grose Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue.
[UK]Lex. Balatronicum.
[UK]Egan Grose’s Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue.

2. water (for drinking).

[UK]W.H. Smith ‘The Thieves’s Chaunt’ in Farmer Musa Pedestris (1896) 121: For she never lushes dog’s-soup or lap, / But she loves my cousin the bluffer’s tap.
[UK]‘William Juniper’ True Drunkard’s Delight.
[US]H.W. Bentley ‘Linguistic Concoctions of the Soda Jerker’ in AS XI:1 43: DOG SOUP. Water.
dog-stiffener (n.) (also stiffener) [stiffen v.1 (3)]

(Aus.) a professional dingo-killer.

[Aus]Bulletin (Sydney) 9 Jun. 14/1: Have often seen the ‘dog-stiffeners’ start out on their rounds with baits for the dingoes – in a leather wallet which also held the man’s tucker for the day. [...] One old ‘stiffener’ was once found by station hands lying on the ground and twitching like a dog with a bait inside him.
[Aus]Bulletin (Sydney) 10 Nov. 14/3: The dog-stiffener was sitting in his turn-out, in front of the pub., when the ‘’possum-peeler’ paddled up.
[Aus]L.M. Palmer-Archer Bush Honeymoon 327: There were among them [...] dog-stiffeners, men that spent their time on the marsoopial fence.
[US]P. Lecky By Himself 334: The constant employment of a dog-stiffener had accounted for eighty odd dingoes so far.
J. Nicolson Long Creek 97: For a dinkum grog eater [...] that dog stiffener doesn't have any trouble getting up early.
dogsucker/sucking

see separate entries.

dog tag (n.) [for a dog to be ‘legal’ (not a stray) in the US it must have a labelled collar]

1. (orig. US) an identification disk.

[UK]K. Morse Letters 15 Feb. 68: He took their names and then was inspired to look at their ‘dog tags’ in confirmation and found that not one of the names agreed!
[US](con. 1917–18) T. Boyd Through the Wheat 152: We’ve got to git his dog-tag off.
[US](con. 1944) J.H. Burns Gallery (1948) 45: The graves are plotted in neat rows [...] Most of the crosses have dogtags affixed to them.
[US](con. 1944) Wilder & Blum Stalag 17 [film script] 3: He lifts the metal dogtags off his chest.
[US](con. WWII) F.I. Gwaltney Heaven and Hell 58: Holding the dog tags aloft, Grimes suddenly grinned.
[US](con. 1940s) G. Mandel Wax Boom 269: He wore only combat boots and the dogtags that identified him.
[US](con. 1968) W.E. Merritt Where the Rivers Ran Backward 22: You be wearing you dog tags then, Sampson. Just so’s we can identify the body.

2. (US drugs) a legitimate prescription for otherwise illegal narcotics.

[US]J.E. Schmidt Narcotics Lingo and Lore.
dog tempter (n.)

(Aus.) a small piece of meat placed at the edge of the butcher's slab, specifically to attract a dog which is conventiently near to be hit.

[Aus]Laverton Mercury (WA) 31 Oct. 3/7: Other considerable bits which are placed at the extreme outward edge of the slab the knight-of-the-cleaver calls ‘dog-tempters,’ because they are put in such a place as to admit of the shopman getting a good aim at any marauding animal.
dog ticket (n.)

(Aus.) a harbor/river certificate.

[Aus]Truth (Perth) 16 Jan. 3/8: If Green is found guilty of incomepetence [sic] it will reflect seriously on those who are responsible, after examination, for the issuing of ‘dog-tickets’ (the name by which harbor and river certificates are known) to some of the incompetents.
dogtown (n.)

see separate entries.

dog trick (n.) (also dog’s trick)

a treacherous or spiteful act, an ill-turn, a mean, cruel trick.

trans. P. Vergil Eng. Hist. (Camd. No. 36) 284: I will heere, in the way of mirthe, declare a prettie dog tricke or gibe as concerninge this mayden [N].
[UK]Fletcher Chances III iv: I privy to this Dog-trick?
[UK]J. Taylor ‘In Praise of Hemp-Seed’ in Works (1869) III 64: Puling sonnets, whining elegies, the dog-tricks of love .
[UK] ‘The Four-Legg’d Elder’ in Farmer Merry Songs and Ballads (1897) I 118: I’ll tell you of a Dog-trick now, / Which much concerns your wives.
[UK]Buckingham Chances II i: I smell an old dog trick of yours.
[UK]B.E. Dict. Canting Crew n.p.: He play’d me a Dog-trick, he did basely and dirtily by me.
[UK]New Canting Dict. [as cit. c.1698].
[US](con. 1875) F.T. Bullen Cruise of the ‘Cachalot’ 57: Captain Slocum improved the occasion by giving us a short harangue, the burden of which was that we had now seen a little of what any of us might expect if we played any ‘dog’s tricks’ on him.
dog wagon (n.) [play on SE dog wagon, used by the dog-catcher]

1. (US) a small café or restaurant sited in a converted vehicle, a diner [the quality of food is generally poor].

[US]E.H. Babbitt ‘College Words and Phrases’ in DN II:i 32: dog-wagon, n. Night lunch wagon.
Alumni News (Cornell U.) 30 Mar. q. in Bishop Hist. Cornell (1962) 293: Old John Love [...] drove his dog wagon up by the foundry and began to serve coffee, soup, hot dogs, and desdemonas.
C.S. Brooks Chimney-Pot Papers 148: There used to be a humble restaurant and kitchen on wheels — to the vulgar, a dog-wagon — up toward York Street.
J. Thurber Let Your Mind Alone 112: ‘I wish you wouldn’t call them dog-wagons,’ she said [...] ‘Decent people call them diners’.
[US]S. Lewis Kingsblood Royal (2001) 239: For two weeks now he had been creeping off to lunch alone, at some dog-wagon.
M.L. Settle Kiss of Kin 71: Joe Poppelino’s dog-wagon had begun to grow from the seed of his own kitchen table.
A. Calder-Marshall Innocent Eye 191: Everything was ‘marvellous!’ - the farms, the hotels in little places, the pinball games in the lobby, the apple-pie in dog-wagon.
[US] in DARE.
(ref. to 1890s) A.A. Metcalf Predicting New Words 138: Students at Yale University in the 1890s referred to sausages as dogs, and the lunch wagon where they were sold as a dog wagon.

2. (US) a prison van for conveying prisoners.

[US] in DARE.
D.G. Moore Enter without Knocking 111: I drove the dog wagon following the gang truck [...] All went well on the trip in to the river bed, but I noticed several prisoners eying the escape possibilities.
[US]B. Rodgers Queens’ Vernacular 126: If he is driven by the arresting officers in a squad car, he travels in a cock-car, dog wagon (police station wagon often used for transporting police dogs), or a whistler, if the siren is sounding.
dog-walloper (n.) (Aus.)

1. used as a generic insult (presumably ex sense 3 or 4).

[Aus]Glen Innes Examiner (NSW) 2 Nov. 4/2: Addressing Mr. Colter as ‘You piebald dog-walloper,’ demanded to know what he meant by alluding to him (Colonel M'Gee) as a ‘ whisky-absorbing, poison purveying importation from Dublin’ .
Dly Telegraph (Sydney) 10 Dec. 6/3: Defendant pleaded guilty to a charge of having called Mr. Friendship [...] ‘a bald-headed dog-walloper’ .

2. a tout, often for a tailor or clothier [rolls or cloth or other items were placed on the pavement outside a shop, the implication being that dogs might urinate on them].

[Aus]Truth (Sydney) 8 Mar. 4/8: These remarks were addressed to the dog-walloper of the Blum clothiery, who was standing on the kerb at the time waiting for likely customers.
[Aus]Truth (Sydney) 7 Apr. 5: [headline] TAKE-DOWN ‘TAILORS,’ / And their tricky touts. / How Many Mugs are Mulct of Money. / SUSPICIOUS SUBSTITUTION OF SLOPS FOR SERGE. / Dubious Doings of Dirty Dog-Wollopers.
[Aus]Truth (Perth) 27 Sept. 9/3: [T]his company appears to be a triple cross between an ordinary building society [...] and a money lender’s dog-walloper.
[Aus]Smith’s Wkly (Sydney) 17 July 9/1: I nominate Brother Bill for Jack-of-all-trades Stakes. His record : Clerk, grocer, insurance canvasser, grave-digger, shearer, horse-breaker, bailiff, undertaker, ‘spruiker,’ ‘dog- walloper’ (outdoor salesman), bee farmer, and sanitary contractor.
[Aus]Windsor & Richmond Gaz. (NSW) 6 Jan. 11/4: The writer [...] commenced his career as a "dog- walloper"' to a Brickfield Hill firm of drapers, famous for its £5 bales of household drapery.
(con. early 20C) Dly Telegraph (Sydney) 13 Jan. 10/3: Between the ages of 14 and 16 he had 12 jobs, including [...] dog walloper (this last for a tailor who stacked his rolls of gent’s natty suitings on the pavement outside, and employed Bill principally to stop the dogs from getting too interested in them.
[Aus] (con. early 20C) Newcastle Morn. Herald (NSW) 28 Aug. 2/4: [B]ecause store-owners were in the habit of displaying their wares across the greater part of the footpath, and because Newcastle abounded in dogs (even then), boys employed to shoo them from the stock became "dog-wallopers.

3. a fashionable style of walking stick.

[Aus]Sydney Sportsman (Surry Hills, NSW) 21 Oct. 1/7: [A] hard-driven ball struck him on the walking-stick, and broke the gold- topped dog-walloper square in halves.
[Aus]Sydney Sportsman (Surry Hills, NSW) 6 Sept. 1/7: Have you seen Dave Smith doing town carrying his silver-mounted dog walloper, and with his new diamond ring sparkling like a heliograph.
Land (Sydney) 29 July 14/5: He was wearing a double-breaster, an ‘eggboiler,’' carrying a dog-walloper in one hand, and a small suit-case in the other.
[Aus]Bulletin (Sydney) 3 July 17/4: Swagger sticks, or ‘dog-wallopers’ as the boys called them, were not nearly as popular with the Australian army officer during the last war as in the days of 1914-18.

4. one who is employed specifically to gather up and train stray dogs.

[Aus]Windsor & Richmond Gaz. (NSW) 18 July 3/2: [in fig. use] Unwary tradesmen at times have their goods defiled by passing curs. You, no doubt, through the negligence of your office dog-walloper, have allowed your columns to be defiled in a similar way.
Dubbo Dispatch (NSW) 3 Spt. 5/5: [S]traying dogs, which can be depended on to enjoy the luxury of a roll or a blissful camp in these most ideal spots [i.e. flower-beds], unless a dog-walloper Is engaged.
Riverina Recorder (NSW) 12 Sept. : Owners, of course, may avoid the tax [on strays] by despatching their pets to the champion ‘dog walloper’ of the State.

5. a form of (stout) boot or shoe.

[Aus]Truth (Perth) 16 Sept. 3/1: [advert] The upper story: The gag the bootmaker gives when he hasn’t got the customers’s dog wallopers done according to promise.

6. some form of stick-like weapon, e.g. a truncheon, a whip; also attrib.

Dly Telegraph (Sydney) 21 May 2/7: If I had a uniform with one of those dog-wallopers to carry around, I’d probably make a big difference to the Force.
[Aus]Sun (Sydney) 1 Dec. 4/2: [L]ook at police-Inspectors — for years they've had to defend themselves with nothing but those funny little dog-walloper whips with silver handles.
[Aus]Smith’s Wkly (Sydney) 9 Feb. 3/5: Weapons used [in POW camps] were known to troops as dog-wallopers. These were pieces of wood about a metre long and tapered to an edge like, a sword blade. They were heavy.
[Aus]Sun (Sydney) 11 Jan. 4/1: [A]ll six guards were adept with ‘dog-wallopers’ — the long pick handles used continually to bash prisoners.
dog-walloping (n.) (Aus.)

1. driving away and/or killing of stray dogs.

Illawarra Mercury 8 Mar. 2/4: The Man in the Street Says [...] That a combination has been formed in [...] the town which is known as the ‘Dog-Walloping Brigade'. That the stray, ‘meathounds’ can be seen scampering in all directions.

2. physical or verbal beating or assault.

[Aus]Sun (Kalgoorlie) 29 May 9/4: So all those laboriously thought-out headlines to grace Wade’s defeat, such as [...] ‘The dog-walloping of Wade, the wastrel,’ and so on, will represent so much wasted brain sweat.
[Aus]Truth (Brisbane) 23 Mar. 5/6: Samuel Langford celebrated the period of goodwill to men by administering a dog-walloping to his brother nigger, McVea, on Boxing Night.
Dly Commercial News (Sydney) 26 Nov. 4/2: There is only one argument that appeals to a bully, and that argument is a ‘dog-walloping’.
dog water (n.) (US)

1. semen.

[US]C. Brown Manchild in the Promised Land (1969) 85: ‘Man, that ain’t nothin’ but dog water.’ [...] ‘That ain’t no dog water, man ’cause it’as slimy.’.
[US]Esquire Sept. 136: Also, a spot of ‘dog-water’ there, pre-coital seepage [HDAS].
[US]J.A. Friedman Tales of Times Square 103: No dry spasms, piss or clear drops of ‘dog water’ according to the glib rule sheet .
Marsiglio & Hutchinson Sex, Men & Babies 35: Some spoke of their ejaculate as ‘dog water’.
S. Lloyd Rita & Kids Next Door 36: He drew out his cock [...] and let fly another wad of dog-water.

2. urine.

[US]B. Rodgers Queens’ Vernacular.
[US]J. Stahl Permanent Midnight 85: I’d rather drink dog water than say this.

3. a derog. term denoting a lack of skill, orig. used of incompetent video gamers .

[Aus]Sydney Morn. Herald 18 Nov. 🌐 Dogwater: A derogatory term for someone unskilled, especially at a video game. Also used outside gaming to denote something is ‘trash’.
dog work (n.)

(US) tedious, menial tasks.

[US]Boyne & Thompson Wild Blue 256: Eatherton [...] gave her most of the office dog work to do.
J. Child in Cosmopolitan May 246: It’s important to learn all the dog work so you can do it very fast [HDAS].

In phrases

crazy as a dog with two peters (adj.)

(US) extremely unstable.

[US]M. McBride Swollen Red Sun 144: That Reverend’s crazier than a coon dog with two peters.
cut a dog in half (v.)

(Aus.) to belch.

[US]Hartford Courant (CT) sect. D 5 Sept. 27/4: G’Day from Down Under [...] Cut a dog in half — flatulence.
die like a dog (in a string) (v.)

see under die v.

dog and goanna rules (n.) [the image of a fight between a dog and a goanna lizard]

(Aus.) no rules at all.

[Aus]Bulletin 20 Oct. 39: He [Thomas Aikens] once announced that ‘whatever rules the Speaker might lay down, Marquis of Queensberry, Rafferty or Dog and Goanna’, they would all suit him and he would ‘give no quarter and ask none’.
[Aus]Australian 1 Dec. 13: When it comes to takeovers in the business world, Mr Bjelke Petersen wants a Marquis of Queensberry style conduct observed, not the dog and goanna rules and tactics so often displayed in his parliament [GAW4].
[Aus]P. Temple Black Tide (2012) [ebook] This time, dog and goanna rules. Rolled the prick, rolled and boned him.
dog and pony show (n.) (also cat and pony show, horse and dog show) [the orig. dog and pony shows were small circuses, where they were the sole animal performers; thus the image is of an event which boasts much presentation but little substance]

(US) any elaborately formal occasion, used for official briefings, public relations etc.

(con. 1916) B. Hecht Charlie 14: Black Jack Pershing [...] dubbed it ‘Colonel Foreman’s Dog and Pony Show.’.
[US]A. Maupin Tales of the City (1984) 82: I have a dog-and-pony show for fartface Siegel this morning.
Commander J. Meacham N.Y. Times 4 Jan. n.p.: I have never in my life assembled such a pack of truly gargantuan falsehoods. The reporters will think we are putting on a horse and dog show when we try to sell them this crap [R].
[US]P. Coyote interview 🌐 There was a certain amount of ramma-lammah that we would do for other people, certain dog and pony shows we would put on to hustle.
[US]N. McCall Makes Me Wanna Holler (1995) 256: I cursed myself for letting them put me through that dog and pony show.
[US]J. Stahl I, Fatty 157: That’s [i.e. wholesomeness] what these dog-and-pony shows were all about.
[US](con. 1973) C. Stella Johnny Porno 19: The spotlight they gave that commission was nothing more than a dog and pony show.
[US]D. Winslow The Force [ebook] Just about everything I said in there was bullshit [...] That was a dog-and-pony show to satisfy the suits.
[US]C.D. Rosales Word Is Bone [ebook] ‘I’ll be damned,’ Kate said, [...] ‘if his ex-wife is gonna get to run this cat and pony show’.
[Ire]P Howard Braywatch 358: [M]y conversation with Delma over who initiated the whole dog and pony show.
dog in a doublet (n.) (also ape in a doublet, boar in a doublet) [the custom in Germany and Flanders to dress the dogs used to hunt wild boar in a form of buff doublet]

a daring, bold person; thus proud as a dog in a doublet, very proud; a mere dog in a doublet, a pitiful figure, one who shows off to no avail.

[UK]Dekker Shoemaker’s Holiday VI i: My master will be as proud as a dog in a doublet, all in beaten damask and velvet.
[UK]Laughing Mercury 15-22 Sept. 185: How now my Dutch Mullipuffs, my fat Boares in doublets, What price Herrings in Holland now? Have ye not fish’d fair and caught a frogg?
[UK]Mercurius Democritus 10-26 Aug. 101: He’s as pert as an Ape in a Doublet.
[UK]J. Phillips Maronides (1678) 131: And make me thus forget all grace; / Dog in a Doublet that I was.
[UK]Urquhart (trans.) Gargantua and Pantagruel (1927) I Bk III 436: Henc, mastiffs, dogs in a doublet, get you behind, aloof, villains.
A. Smith Lives of Most Noted Highway-men etc. I 39: You Dog in a Doublet, do you Presume to Catechize better Christians than yourself?
[Scot]Caledonian Mercury 29 Mar. 1/2: T signifies Tyburn, [...] D Dog-in-a-Doublet.
[UK]Grose Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue (3rd edn) n.p.: Dog in a Doublet. A daring, resolute fellow. In Germany and Flanders the boldest dogs used to hunt the boar, having a kind of buff doublet buttoned on their bodies, Rubens has represented several so equipped, so has Sneyders.
[UK]Lex. Balatronicum [as cit. 1796].
[UK]Egan Grose’s Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue.
J. Salisbury Gloss. Words and Phrs. in S.E. Worcestershire 6: A mere dog in a doublet = A mean pitiful creature.
dogs and all (pfx)

(N.Z. prison) of a cell search, exhaustive, comprehensive.

[NZ]D. Looser Boobslang [U. Canterbury D.Phil. thesis] 59/1: dogs and all phr. an extremely thorough cell check.
dogs are barking

(Aus.) used to imply that one has a ‘hot tip’ on a racehorse.

[Aus]R. Beckett Dinkum Aussie Dict. 21: Dogs are barking: A hot racecourse tip as in, ‘Everyone know’s he’s got a chance, all the bloody dogs are barking.’.
dogs in the grass (n.) (also puppies in a haystack)

(US) frankfurters and sauerkraut.

[US]Maines & Grant Wise-crack Dict. 9/1: Hot puppies in a haystack – Frankfurters and sauerkraut.
[US]Chronicle-Telegram (Elyria, OH) 25 Aug. sect. 2 1/4: Two poached eggs on toast should not be called ‘Adam and Eve on a raft,’ nor should frankfurters and sauerkraut be referred to as ‘dogs in the grass.’.
dogs on the street (n.)

(Irish) the mass of uninformed people, those who are last to know.

[Ire]Irish Times 15 Apr. n.p.: Do the dogs on the street know that the question on an Anglo-Irish poet is usually the toughest poetry question on the paper? [BS].
T. Hayden Irish on the Inside 293: But even the dogs on the street knew better.
dog trot to hell (n.)

(US) a highly unpleasant experience.

[US]N.Y. Tribune 23 Aug. 5/3: You— you boldfaced tenderfoot! Fire us to hoof it to town! It’s a dog trot to hell for you, an’ you starts right now!
dog-ugly (adj.)

extremely unattractive.

[US]E. McNamara ‘Redline’ in ThugLit Jan. [ebook] [T]he freckled girls back home were dog-ugly in comparison.
dog-wallop (v.) (Aus.)

1. to work as a shop tout.

[Aus]Coburg Leader (Vic.) 25 Mar. 4/1: [H]er gallant from Albion street has taken on dog-walloping at Hurst’s.
[Aus]Smith’s Wkly (Sydney) 8 May 10/6: For ten years I’ve been dog-walloping for an old Jew clothier.

2. to beat, lit. or fig.; to cajole, to subject to hard(er) labour conditions; thus excl. I’ll be dogwalloped!

[Aus]Windsor & Richmond Gaz. (NSW) 16 Sept. 1/2: When Russia had been banged, lashed, minced, dog-walloped, donkey-licked and smashed up generally, she submitted, on terms she was glad to jump at.
[Aus]Truth (Brisbane) 13 Apr. 4/6: [T]here Is no speeding-up or dog-walloping the workers, and the arrangements for their convenience and comfort are probably better than are those of any similar big contract [...] in Australia.
[Aus]Westonian (WA) 30 June 2/: For a team like Edna May to be donkey-licked and dog-walloped in the manner they were, is nothing short of disgrace.
[Aus]Queensland Times (Ipswich, Qld) 26 Dec. 3/2: ‘Well, I’ll be dog-walloped. J’meanta tell me y’ can read them Dago langwidges?’.
Land (Sydney) 19 Nov. 1/1: [T]he Government had bowed the knee to Canberra and had been ‘dog-walloped.’ It had submitted weakly to an incomplete plan.

3. to walk or run heavily.

Dly Telegraph (Sydney) 11 Oct. 5/5: ‘You wouldn't see a lot of footballers dog-walloping around Lord’s cricket ground with big spikes in their boots [...] There would be revolution’.
dog-walloping (adj.)

(Aus.) of work, menial or non-specific.

[Aus]Smith’s Wkly (Sydney) 16 Mar. 5/1: A number of men [who] were being retained [...] to do ‘dog-walloping’ jobs round base camps have already been demobbed.
flog the dog (v.)

to masturbate.

CBer’s Handy Atlas/Dictionary 14/2: chicken-choker - One who flogs the dog.
[US]G. Carlin GeorgeCarlin.com 🌐 Masturbate (male): flog the dog, flog the hog.
fuck the dog (and sell the pups) (v.) [fig. use of SE dog] (US)

1. (also feed the dog, fug..., screw..., fuck the pooch) to idle, to waste time, to loaf on the job.

in M. Sullivan Our Times V 328: F.T.D.: Feeding the dog. The supposed occupation of a soldier who is killing time.
[US]J. Conroy World to Win 203: One of the first things you gotta learn when you’re f----n’ the dog [...] is t’ look like you’re workin’ hard enough t’ make yet butt blossom like a rose.
[US]A. Bessie Men in Battle 331: They were ‘fucking the dog,’ spending what money they had.
[US]N. Mailer Naked and Dead 289: All right, troopers, let’s quit fuggin the dog.
International Journal of Psychoanalysis XXXV 351: This was followed by a four-month period of ‘funking,’ ‘fucking the dog,’ characterized by drinking, missed hours, tardiness, and ‘sponging’ on mother [HDAS].
[US]E. Stephens Blow Negative! 49: Those apes are screwing the dog all day long up there.
[US]K. Kolb Getting Straight 70: Until you said that, I thought you’d been screwing the dog on this project.
[US]J. Sayles Union Dues (1978) 58: You let me catch you fuckin the dog again, so help me, you’ll be some sorry characters.
[US] K. Weaver Texas Crude 93: Fuckin’ the dog and sellin’ the pups. Wasting time and loafing on the job.
[US]H. Rawson Dict. of Invective (1991) 120: More strongly, also referring to loafing or shirking one’s duty, to whip [or fuck] the dog.
[US]Simon & Burns ‘Hard Cases’ Wire ser. 2 ep. 4 [TV script] From here the view is two of my detctives fuckin’ the dog.
posting at thesuperficial.com 28 Aug. 🌐 i guess i should get back to work or should i fuck the dog for another 10–15 minutes?

2. to bungle, to blunder.

[US](con. WWII) J.O. Killens And Then We Heard The Thunder (1964) 144: I don’t know what I’m going to do with you [...] You’ve gone and fucked the dog again.
[US]Simon & Price ‘All Due Respect’ Wire ser. 3 ep. 2 [TV script] Troopers really fucked the pooch on this one.
get in(to) a dog corn-piece (v.) [dog is synon. with a guard or watchman, and if he catches you in his corn-piece or corn-field you are in trouble]

(W.I.) to get into difficulties.

[WI]cited in Cassidy & LePage Dict. Jam. Eng. (1980).
have a dog tied up (v.) (also leave a dog tied up) [the image of having left one’s dog while moving on elsewhere]

(Aus./N.Z.) to be indebted, esp. at a hotel.

[Aus]Bulletin (Sydney) 1 Oct. 43/1: [I]n the end they parted with everything that was negotiable, and ‘left a dog tied up’ as well.
[Aus]Baker Popular Dict. Aus. Sl.
in the dog cart (adj.)

(N.Z. prison) in trouble, facing problems.

[NZ]D. Looser Boobslang [U. Canterbury D.Phil. thesis] 58/2: in the dog cart n. in trouble.
keep dog (v.) [SE watchdog]

to keep a lookout.

[UK]J. Morton Lowspeak 86: Keep dog – to keep a look-out. Used in London and often by three-card tricksters of whom the look out man is called the dog eye.
[UK]J.J. Connolly Layer Cake 262: He left Terry keeping dog while he drove round and round in circles.
[UK]J.J. Connolly Viva La Madness 219: I ring the number of the guy who’s keeping dog on the premises.
see a man about a dog (v.)

see under see v.

In exclamations

the dog’s foot!

(US) a mild excl.

[US]T.B. Haber ‘Canine Terms Applied to Human Beings’ in AS XL:2 85: (the) dog’s foot. An expression of disgust.