attack dog
8
4.1
- noun
- /əˈtæk dɔɡ/
:
perro de ataque
- He's a Schutzhund-trained attack dog.
- trained attack dog
- attack dog role
Examples
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Neighborhoods stay illuminated by floodlights and seething with attack dogs.
Fiction book (1996) -
That dog was an old attack dog.
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- How do you raise an attack dog?
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- You can get an attack dog.
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- Are you the owner of that attack dog?
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The guy next door owned one of those attack dogs.
Fiction book (1995) -
Your attack dog, time to bring him to heel, eh?
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He's a very vicious attack dog.
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Forever to protect them, you find the guts to run the burglars out with the biggest gauge shotgun you have, lock the doors and windows, and put attack dogs in the yard along with a solid fence.
Blog text (25) -
The police deployed an attack dog to help apprehend the suspect.
Synonyms
20
2.1
A dog trained to protect people or property by warning and sometimes attacking intruders
9
2.2
A dog trained to help police find people, drugs, or bombs
9
3.1
A dog trained to guard a building and warn about strangers
How Aggressive
Surface Forms
Morphology
The meaning 'a dog trained to attack or protect' is directly and compositionally derived from 'attack' (act of assault) + 'dog' (canine), so a learner who knows both words can infer the function of the compound. This noun-noun compounding pattern is transparent and common across languages (e.g., Spanish 'perro de ataque'), making it readily comprehensible to B1 learners.
Etymology
Attack dog is a name for a dog trained to attack on command to guard a place or person. Imagine a dog told to bite or chase a stranger to keep people safe, and that real picture explains why the phrase means a dog used for security or 'protection'.