English edit

Noun edit

dog-child (plural dog-children)

  1. A feral child who lives as a dog, outside human society.
  2. (often humorous) A dog, treated as if a child of the owner.
    • 1993 December 15, “PICKY DOGS NEED YULE TREATS, TOO”, in The Charlotte Observer:
      Remove the pan and slice cookies into bars or squares, depending on the mouth size of your dog-child.
    • 2004 March 13, “Best Irish Blessing Is An Irish Dog”, in Free Lance-Star:
      Never tell my dog-child Vivien that she is not Irish. She says she is Irish and we believe her. Being well-mannered, nicely reared humans, we would never contradict her.
    • 2005, The Latham letter, volumes 26-29, Latham Foundation:
      By drawing parallels between child development and dog development, Ms. King allows us, the human parent, to better understand why our "dog-children" do what they do.
    • 2009 May 21, “Pet parents and the dog children that bite them”, in Deseret News, alt Lake City, UT:
      [] more than ever, many of those conversations require me to interject for the sake of clarification: "Wait, are you talking about your human child or your dog child?"
    • 2011 August 26, “Today is National Dog Day”, in Columbus Ledger-Enquirer:
      To honor my dog-child, here's a little doggy profile. Feel free to fill it out about your four-legged kid in the comments!

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