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Glite Dictionary
Pekinese

Pekinese

1 5.9
A small Chinese dog with short legs, long silky hair, and a flat face
  • noun
  • /ˌpɛkɪˈniz/
: pequinés
  • The Pekinese and the Chow, the Pug and the Shih Tzu, for example, some bred to hunt and herd, others to be eaten, and still others to live in the lap of imperial luxury.

Examples

  • "It's Madame Marcon's Pekinese dog yelping and defecating in the courtyard.

    Fiction book (2001)

  • A Pekinese, mind you.

    Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (2009)

  • No bigger than a Pekinese.

    Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (2009)

  • You look like a Pekinese.

    The Big Sleep (1946)

  • Eventually, though, he had gotten his Pekinese freed.

    Fiction book (1995)

  • If you talk to anyone, even if it's a Pekinese pissing on a lamppost... ...the girl dies.

    Dirty Harry (1971)

  • The Pekinese is known for its long silky coat and flat face.

  • My friend has a Pekinese that loves to curl up in her lap.

  • At the dog show, the Pekinese won first place in the toy breed category.

Synonyms

Pekingese
vsPekinese
3 6.8

A small dog from China with long silky fur, short legs, and a flat face

is an alternative spelling without difference in meaning
Peke
vsPekinese
1 8.8

A small dog with short legs, long silky fur and a flat face

is the full formal name rather than the short familiar form

Surface Forms

Pekinese singular
Pekineses plural

Morphology

Pekinese = Peking (transparent) = Peking + ese

Clear demonymic/adjectival formation from the place-name 'Peking' plus the productive suffix '-ese', so the relation to the place and origin is directly conveyed.

Etymology

The word Pekinese comes from Peking, the old name for Beijing, and the ending -ese, which means 'from' or 'of', as in Chinese and Japanese. So a Pekinese is a dog 'from Peking', which explains why the name refers to the small Chinese breed.