Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun The bark of a dog.
  • noun Informal A dog.
  • noun Outcry; clamor.
  • noun An overbearing manner.
  • adjective Commanding, especially in an arrogant manner.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • interjection Representing the sound of a dog barking.
  • noun The sound of a dog barking
  • noun A dog

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Imitative.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Onomatopoeic.

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Help support Wordnik (and make this page ad-free) by adopting the word bow-wow.

Examples

  • "You give me that bow-wow, and I'll smash Hanson right now, and you got the job right away -- come to work in the morning."

    CHAPTER XVII 2010

  • "This cook-feller, Hanson, pretty quick I smash him up an 'fire him, then you can come along ... and the bow-wow, too."

    CHAPTER XVI 2010

  • A bow-wow is good on a scow when all hands sleep alongside the dock or in an anchor watch.

    CHAPTER XVI 2010

  • "How would you like it, Toto, if I said nothing to you but 'bow-wow'?"

    Archive 2008-03-01 2008

  • If you were his pet bow-wow or bunny, it would just be noise and you wouldn't think, wow, hrun intelligently intervened in that bacterial culture — jumpinpussycats, that means hrun must be, my God, an INTELLIGENT DESIGNER:!

    Another predictable argument against front-loading 2007

  • He shakes his paw with a loud bow-wow, and thus the news he tells.

    After Thanksgiving 2009 Muse Day* « Fairegarden 2009

  • But you'll wise up -- especially if stocks go from wow to bow-wow in the years ahead.

    The New Buzz In Planning 2008

  • Unhappily he proved by example the truth of his own opinion that he could do “the big bow-wow strain” very well, but that it was not his celebrare domestica facta.

    Saint Ronan's Well 2008

  • I've heard modern productions do all sorts of things to get round the problem - usually by lengthening the 'o' at the end, so that it becomes more 'oo'-like, for both bow-wow and dow.

    On OP (the latest) DC 2007

  • The Ethical Blogger: Iranian blogger in bow-wow row

    Iranian blogger in bow-wow row Matthew Hennessey 2007

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