a dog in the manger, dog whistle, dogs of war

a dog in the manger
The idiom "Dog in the Manger" refers to a person who prevents others from using something, even though the person himself or herself does not want it. The expression implies that someone is overstaying their welcome or taking liberties where they do not really belong. It comes from Aesop’s fable about a dog which lay in a manger filled with hay. The idiom is often used to describe a person who selfishly stops other people from using or enjoying something which he/she cannot use or enjoy.

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manger
NOUN
a long open box or trough for horses or cattle to eat from.
SIMILAR:
trough
feeder
crib
feeding trough
fodder rack

Translate manger to

noun
Krippe
Futterkrippe

WIE LAUTET DIE UEBERSETZUNG VON "HE'S A DOG IN THE MANGER." IN DEUTSCH?
en  He's a dog in the manger. = de  Er ist ein Spielverderber.

Bedeutung
mAEnnliche Person, die durch ihr Verhalten, ihre Stimmung anderen die Freude an etwas nimmt

BEISPIEL
sei [doch] kein Spielverderber!

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Dog Whistle Dogs of war
Former Trump Official Says Ex-Prez ‘Knows’ Anti-immigrant Remarks Are a ‘Dog Whistle’: ‘Very Premeditated'


What's the Political Meaning of 'Dog Whistle'?
A message only some can hear
The earliest, and still most common, meaning of dog whistle is the obvious one: it is a whistle for dogs. Dog ears can detect much higher frequencies than our puny human ears can, so a dog whistle is nothing more than an exceedingly high-pitched whistle that canines can hear, but that we cannot.

dog whistle
Figuratively, a 'dog whistle' is a coded message communicated through words or phrases commonly understood by a particular group of people, but not by others.

Yet there's another dog whistle we've been hearing about lately: a coded message communicated through words or phrases commonly understood by a particular group of people, but not by others.


Given that the term dog whistle has been around for over 200 years, it seems odd that it only developed a figurative sense recently. After all, it’s the perfect word to use to describe something that some people can hear, but others cannot. Yet it is only within the past 20 years or so that it has seen this figurative sense take hold. And it is primarily used to describe political speech.

If you want to cast him as just a nativist, his slogan "Make America Great Again" can be read as a dog-whistle to some whiter and more Anglo-Saxon past.
—Ross Douthat, The New York Times, 10 August 2015

Saul introduces the concept of the “figleaf,” which differs from the more familiar dog whistle: while the dog whistle targets specific listeners with coded messages that bypass the broader population, the figleaf adds a moderating element of decency to cover the worst of what’s on display, but nevertheless changes the boundaries of acceptability.
—Ray Drainville, Hyperallergic, 12 July 2016

Dog whistle appears to have taken on this political sense in the mid-1990s; the Oxford English Dictionary currently has a citation from a Canadian newspaper, The Ottawa Citizen, in October of 1995, as their earliest recorded figurative use: “It's an all-purpose dog-whistle that those fed up with feminists, minorities, the undeserving poor hear loud and clear.”


The recent appearance of the figurative use does not mean that dog whistle has not been used previously to describe the habit that politicians occasionally have of sending coded messages to a certain group of constituents. In 1947, a book titled American Economic History referred to a speech by Franklin Delano Roosevelt as being “designed to be like a modern dog-whistle, with a note so high that the sensitive farm ear would catch it perfectly while the unsympathetic East would hear nothing.” However, saying that speech is like a dog-whistle (which is a simile) is not quite the same as saying that it is a dog whistle (which is a metaphor), and this subtle distinction is what causes us to judge the phrase as having originated in the 1990s, rather than the 1940s.

Update: This word was added in April 2017.

Words We're Watching talks about words we are increasingly seeing in use but that have not yet met our criteria for entry.


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The dogs of war is a phrase that refers to the chaos and havoc that accompanies war. It is a literary image that compares war to a pack of wild, uncontrollable dogs that are let loose from their leashes to pursue their prey. The phrase also has a second meaning of mercenary soldiers who fight for money rather than loyalty. The phrase is from Shakespeare's Julius Caesar.

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call the dogs off
1. Lit. to order hunting or watch dogs to abandon their quarry. They robber gave up and the guard called the dogs off. Call off the dogs!
2. Fig. to stop threatening, chasing, or hounding [a person]. Tell the sheriff to call off the dogs. We caught the robber. Okay, you've caught me! Please call your dogs off!

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Every dog has its day

Proverbs
The proverbs of John Heywood
What's the meaning of the phrase 'Every dog has its day'?
Every dog, and by implication every person, has a period of power or influence.

What's the origin of the phrase 'Every dog has its day'?
This phrase is recorded as being first uttered by no less a notable as Queen Elizabeth I. As Princess Elizabeth, in a letter to her brother and in response to his request for a picture of her, she wrote:

Notwithstanding, as a dog hath a day, so may I perchance have time to declare it in deeds.

This phrase is a rarity - it was first uttered by a queen.
Right quote icon
The letter was published by John Strype in Ecclesiastical Memorials, 1550. It appears that Elizabeth was merely quoting what was in her day already a well-known proverb, although no record of it has been found that pre-dates her writing it down.

John Heywood recorded the proverb in the 1562 edition of A Dialogue conteinyng the nomber in effect of all the Prouerbes in the Englishe tongue and Shakespeare used it in Hamlet, 1603:

Let Hercules himself do what he may,
The cat will mew and dog will have his day.