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dog in the manger

[ dawg in thuh meyn-jer, dog ]

noun

  1. a person who selfishly keeps something that they do not really need or want so that others may not use or enjoy it.


dog in the manger

noun

    1. a person who prevents others from using something he has no use for
    2. ( as modifier )

      a dog-in-the-manger attitude

“Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged” 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012


dog in the manger

  1. A person who spitefully refuses to let someone else benefit from something for which he or she has no personal use: “We asked our neighbor for the fence posts he had left over, but, like a dog in the manger, he threw them out rather than give them to us.” The phrase comes from one of Aesop's fables , about a dog lying in a manger full of hay. When an ox tries to eat some hay, the dog bites him, despite the fact that the hay is of no use to the dog.


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Other Words From

  • dog-in-the-man·ger adjective
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Word History and Origins

Origin of dog in the manger1

First recorded in 1555–65
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Idioms and Phrases

One who prevents others from enjoying something despite having no use for it. For example, Why be a dog in the manger? If you aren't going to use those tickets, let someone else have them . This expression alludes to Aesop's fable about a snarling dog that prevents horses from eating fodder that is unpalatable to the dog itself. [Mid-1500s]
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Example Sentences

It becomes exceedingly easy for one road to play a dog-in-the-manger part.

It wasn't really from the dog-in-the-manger spirit that the little woman acted.

It was the dog-in-the-manger feeling which possesses coquettes of both sexes.

The dog-in-the-manger bibliotaph is the worst; he uses his books but little himself, and allows others to use them not at all.

A man oughtn't to be a dog-in-the-manger about a girl, even if he has got her promise, you know.

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Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023

Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.

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