🥊 A fighter 📦 A packer 🐶 A dog

boxer

16 1.6

A medium-sized strong dog with short hair and a square face

noun
/ˈbɑːksər/

: bóxer

Dilated cardiomyopathy is a recognized problem in Dobermans, Boxers, and giant breed dogs (Tidholm & Jonsson, 2005).
middleweight boxer
boxer dog
boxer mix

But like I have a like I have a little boxer here.

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Examples

The dogs went wild for them, and that big boxer of the old lady's, Georgie, kept whining for more.

Fiction book (2001)
My neighbor has a friendly boxer that loves to play fetch in the yard.
As he opened the back door, our Boxer came in to see what I was doing.

Blog text (21)
Several hundred color slides of our boxer and the others like him arrived yesterday from Berlin.

Call Me by Your Name (2017)
The perfect breed of dog to watch this movie with would be a rescued Italian boxer, Rocky.
The boxer is known for its muscular build and playful personality.
When we went to the dog park, I spotted a beautiful brindle boxer running happily with other dogs.

Surface Forms

boxer singular

boxers plural

Morphology

boxer = box (opaque) = box + er

Although the form is historically box + er, the dog-breed meaning is a lexicalized label and is not readily inferable from the parts.

Etymology

Boxer for the dog has a popular story behind it: it likely comes from the verb box meaning 'to fight' plus -er, because young dogs of this breed often stand up and 'box' with their front paws when they play. That's why the lively, square-faced boxer has a name that makes it sound like a little fighter.