Definitions

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

  • noun A dog of a small breed developed in Germany for hunting badgers, having a long body, a brown or black-and-brown coat, drooping ears, and very short legs. Dachshunds are bred in long-haired, smooth-coat, wire-haired, and miniature varieties, sometimes considered separate breeds.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun The German badger-dog; a breed of short-legged, long-bodied dogs used to draw or bait badgers.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun (Zoöl.) One of a breed of small dogs with short crooked legs, and long body; -- called also badger dog. There are two kinds, the rough-haired and the smooth-haired.

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

  • noun A certain breed of dog having short legs and a long trunk, including miniature, long-haired, and short-haired varieties.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun small long-bodied short-legged German breed of dog having a short sleek coat and long drooping ears; suited for following game into burrows

Etymologies

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

[German : Dachs, badger (from Middle High German dahs, from Old High German; see teks- in Indo-European roots) + Hund, dog (from Middle High German hunt, from Old High German; see kwon- in Indo-European roots).]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

German Dachs ("badger") + Hund ("dog")

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Examples

Comments

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  • "A little dog, half-a-dog high and a dog-and-a-half long."

    - Mary Ellen Herbert.

    September 9, 2008

  • "The World as My Dachshund Sees It."

    August 12, 2009

  • There was a 'Puppies for Sale' notice pinned up on the board at my local shopping centre. It offered 6 week old Dashhound x puppies. A peeved speller had crossed out dashhound and written Dachund.

    September 11, 2010