Definitions

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

  • adverb In concealment.

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

  • adverb quietly in concealment

Etymologies

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

[Probably from dog.]

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Examples

  • One of them might have been lying 'doggo' for very good reasons.

    Freedoms Challenge McCaffrey, Anne 1998

  • Even those who had played "doggo" showed the effects of their incarceration in the brutal open pens where the Eosi had contained them.

    Freedoms Challenge McCaffrey, Anne 1998

  • As I lay "doggo" I formulated many plans for stealing their food to replenish my store, but finally decided that the risk was too great.

    'Brother Bosch', an Airman's Escape from Germany Gerald Featherstone Knight

  • It called for individual nerve and daring on that shell-swept, pestled earth, creeping up to new positions or back for water and food by night, lying "doggo" by day and waiting for a counter-attack by the Germans, who were always the losers in this grim, stealthy advance.

    My Second Year of the War Frederick Palmer 1915

  • But orders came that for the next few days we were to march at night, and during the daytime were to lie "doggo" and not show ourselves for fear of the enemy's aeroplanes.

    The Doings of the Fifteenth Infantry Brigade August 1914 to March 1915 Edward Gleichen 1900

  • Now he aimed and fired, lying "doggo" behind his favourite stone, while bullets from the enemy's trenches flattened themselves upon it, or buried themselves harmlessly in the dry hot soil.

    The Dop Doctor Richard Dehan 1897

  • And here in Prague, looking down over my newspaper from the terrace of my choice, I seemed to see the spires of the city mass closer together and take on the form of giant jungle trees, the broad Vltava to shrink to the narrow silver thread of a mountain stream at the crossing of which Wun Thu.s sporting warriors had levelled their blunderbusses lashed to trees and warranted harmless to all but the men behind them; the paper told of another rising led by Wun Thu. Wun Thu.had lain "doggo" for many years -- at least he had done nothing to attract the attention of Central Europe -- yet here he was, a man of my age and on the downward slope, following the post-war instinct of making trouble -- for himself chiefly, as his attempt failed.

    From a Terrace in Prague Lieut.-Col. B. Granville Baker

  • With the Jap navy lying doggo, PacFleet began to assert itself more and more into the assignment of missions and objectives of the fast carriers.

    Whirlwind Barrett Tillman 2010

  • The fourth point would seem the strongest, as King and Nimitz had decreed an end to the “defueled doggo fleet.”

    Whirlwind Barrett Tillman 2010

  • The fourth point would seem the strongest, as King and Nimitz had decreed an end to the “defueled doggo fleet.”

    Whirlwind Barrett Tillman 2010

Comments

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  • to lie doggo : to hide

    October 8, 2007

  • "From his Way of the Cross he glared at Devereux, only asking for one word of an order to mutiny, but the old man only looked away at the farther wall with bleared and frightened eyes. He seemed to imagine that all he had to do was lie doggo to make the sergeant-major think he was dead."

    - Frank O'Connor, 'The Miser'.

    September 6, 2008

  • See also lie doggo.

    July 11, 2009

  • (adjective/adverb) - In hiding; desiring to be left alone; "lying doggo."

    --Harold Wentworth's Dictionary of American Slang, 1960

    January 17, 2018