lapdog
pronunciation
How to pronounce lapdog in British English:
UK [ˈlæpdɒg]
How to pronounce lapdog in American English:
US [ˈlæpdɔg]
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- Noun:
- a dog small and tame enough to be held in the lap
Word Origin
- lapdog (n.)
- also lap-dog, 1640s, from lap (n.) + dog (n.); figurative sense of "subservient person" is by 1950. Senator McCarthy (R-Wis) renewed his Communists-in-Government charges today and called Senator Tydings (D-Md) the Truman administration's "whimpering lap dog." [AP news story, Aug. 7, 1950]
Example
- 1. You 're such a little lapdog .
- 2. You 're still my brother 's lapdog .
- 3. Blair said he had learned to live with taunts of being bush 's " poodle " or " lapdog . "
- 4. During an interview in his office he held a large alloyed bar of gold silver and copper in his lap and stroked it like an emperor might pet a lapdog .
- 5. But to my mind this part of our heritage should be made over to the lapdog writers , for unless our authors strivemight and main to do away with it they may become birds of a feather .