Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- adjective Shamefaced or guilty.
- adjective Downcast; intimidated.
- noun A sneaky or despicable person.
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun A degraded and sneaking fellow, fit only to be a hangman of dogs.
- Of or pertaining to such a person; having a base or sneaking appearance: as, a hangdog look or gait.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- noun A base, degraded person; a sneak; a gallows bird.
- adjective Low; sneaking; ashamed.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun A
base ,degraded person; asneak ; agallows bird . - adjective Low; sneaking; ashamed.
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- adjective frightened into submission or compliance
- adjective showing a sense of guilt
Etymologies
Sorry, no etymologies found.
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Examples
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I'm an Obama supporter, but that WaPo piece on "hangdog" pictures was a cheap shot at Clinton -- esp since hers was the only "hangdog" picture shown.
Hillary's Closing Argument: It's The Experience, Stupid 2009
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Lauria's Vince is a hangdog, anguish-filled man in a skinny tie, short-sleeved shirt and thick glasses, a coach who screams at everyone and watches game film until the wee hours.
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As in, if you've sent me a dozen emails in the past month, please don't write me a thirteenth sounding all hangdog because I've only answered one or two.
"Look at everything around us. Look at everything we've done." greygirlbeast 2010
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So you can scoff and snicker all you like at the shaggy, hangdog 27-year-old next door dressed in a baggy college sweatshirt and cargo shorts, taking empty pizza boxes and beer bottles to the dumpster.
Two Cheers for the Maligned Slacker Dude Nathan Rabin 2011
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As in, if you've sent me a dozen emails in the past month, please don't write me a thirteenth sounding all hangdog because I've only answered one or two.
"Look at everything around us. Look at everything we've done." greygirlbeast 2010
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One of the small, hangdog-cheerful men had leapt over, torn his jacket off and was attempting to cover the janitor with it.
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Tamara put on an abject expression, tilting her head in a hangdog way.
The Omega Theory Mark Alpert 2011
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One of the stand-out performances came from Joe Wilkinson, whose appearances as hangdog, sexually frustrated neighbour Dan provided some of the biggest laughs.
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They were mostly short, hangdog-cheerful men in shabby suits.
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As in, if you've sent me a dozen emails in the past month, please don't write me a thirteenth sounding all hangdog because I've only answered one or two.
"Look at everything around us. Look at everything we've done." greygirlbeast 2010
brtom commented on the word hangdog
"BLOOM (Shuddering, shrinking, joins his hands with hangdog mien.)"
Joyce, Ulysses, 15
February 8, 2007
yarb commented on the word hangdog
But paying through the nose was not the worst of it; for I had the vexation to perceive, that while I was counting over the cost, this hang-dog was chuckling at the recollection of the night before.
- Lesage, The Adventures of Gil Blas of Santillane, tr. Smollett, bk 1 ch. 2
September 12, 2008
ruzuzu commented on the word hangdog
"A degraded and sneaking fellow, fit only to be a hangman of dogs."
--Cent. Dict.
August 14, 2012