dog's life

English

Pronunciation

• Audio (General Australian):

  (file)

Noun

dog's life (plural dogs' lives)

1. (idiomatic) A miserable, wretched existence.
2. (idiomatic) A life of indolence where the individual may do as he or she pleases, just like a pampered dog.

Usage notes

Originally the term referred to the hard life of the working dog: sleeping in a damp barn, chasing rats and other intruders, living on scraps, etc. Today, however, it has in some circles acquired the completely opposite connotation indicated in sense 2.

Translations

miserable life

• Danish: hundeliv n
• Finnish: koiranelämä (fi)
• French: vie de chien f, vie de galérien f
• German: Hundeleben n
• Greek: σκυλίσια ζωή (el) f (skylísia zoḯ)
• Italian: vita da cani f
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: hundeliv n

  Nynorsk: hundeliv n

• Polish: pieskie życie (pl) n
• Portuguese: vida de cão f
• Russian: соба́чья жизнь (ru) f (sobáčʹja žiznʹ)

pampered life

• Finnish: kissanpäivät (fi) pl
• French: vivre comme un coq en pâte (fr)

The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.

Translations to be checked

• Dutch: ^{(please verify)} hondenleven (nl) n
• Spanish: ^{(please verify)} vida de perros f
• Vietnamese: ^{(please verify)} số chó

Further reading

• Michael Quinion (January 30, 1999) “It's a dog's life”, in World Wide Words.

Anagrams

• God's life