Definitions

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

  • noun A mean or contemptible person or thing.
  • noun A staunchly loyal member of the Democratic Party who consistently supports other Democrats.

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

  • noun US, informal An item or person of low value.
  • noun US, politics A socially conservative and economically liberal person.

Etymologies

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

[From Southern regional yaller dog, yellow dog, mongrel dog with a yellowish coat, cowardly dog. Sense 2, so called because it was said that such Democrats would vote for the party's candidate even if it nominated a yaller dog.]

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Examples

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  • A coward, perhaps redundantly so, as both “yellow�? and “dog�? are associated with cowardice.

    In The South Talkin' Dictionary, the term is defined as an “abusive noun. (1) A cowardly person, (2) In Confederate-era slang, a yaller dog was a staff officer or courier in the Confederate army.�? A Civil War era example and citation are provided.

    A nickname for the Yazoo Delta, a southern railroad.

    July 27, 2009