English Explanatory Dictionary

running dog

English dictionary entry

Meanings

noun
  1. A lackey; a lapdog; an unprincipled person who helps or flatters other, more powerful and often evil people.

Word forms

running dog running dogs

Etymology

Calque of Chinese 走狗 (zǒugǒu, “running dog”) (see also 狗腿子 (gǒutuǐzi) and 狗腿 (gǒutuǐ)), used as an insult by the governments of the People's Republic of China and the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (주구/走狗 (jugu)) against those supportive of the great imperialist powers, variously including Russia and the United States. Though earlier use of the figurative sense of Chinese 走狗 dates back at least to the 18th century.

This entry uses open data from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA/GFDL). Word forms are used for search and are not indexed as separate pages.
Back to search All on R Russian dictionary Dahl dictionary