dog do
- noun
- /dɔg du/
- NSFW
- On Friday night they're at the club, and Sister Dog is doing what dogs do best: rumbling through the garbage cans looking for leftovers, chasing Brother Skunk through the fence, and tussling around the alley with that fine-looking Brother Dog.
Examples
-
Whenever I see dog do on the sidewalk, I make sure to look out for my shoes.
-
Dogs do that.
Fiction book (1994) -
I hugged Merlin, who had jumped into the wagon at the last moment, sensing, as dogs do, that something was going on and wanting to be part of it.
Fiction book (1994) -
Pet owners are required to pick up after their dogs and dispose of the dog do properly.
-
While walking in the park, I noticed someone failed to clean up the dog do left on the grass.
Synonyms
Poop that a dog leaves on the ground
A childish word for poo
Poop left by dogs on the ground
A piece of poop that a dog leaves on the ground
Poop left by a dog on the ground that people must pick up
Poop left by a dog outside where people walk
Small piles or pellets of animal poop
Surface Forms
Morphology
dog + do
Although 'dog' is transparent, the element 'do' as given does not carry a meaning of feces in standard English (the childish form 'doo' or 'doo-doo' does, but that is orthographic/colloquial). A B1 learner who knows 'dog' and the common senses of 'do' (verb meaning 'perform' or auxiliary) would not be able to derive 'fecal droppings' from these constituents, so the phrase is idiomatic and requires prior exposure.
Etymology
Dog do may come from a childish word: people used do, from 'doo-doo', to mean 'poop', so putting dog with do made a simple name for a dog's mess. That's why dog do today means 'dog poop'.