bird dog
1
7.2
- noun
- /bɜrd dɔg/
- US
:
perro de caza
- Before every hunting season, he spent time conditioning his bird dog to ensure its skills were sharp.
- train a bird dog
- good bird dog
- field trial bird dog
Examples
-
The hunter praised his bird dog for locating and retrieving the quail with precision.
-
The practical reason for taking us hunting was that we were the bird dogs.
Fiction book (2001) -
Is your bird dog's nose in the air or on the ground?
Blog text (5) -
What breed of bird dog do you have, and where is its nose primarily focused?
Blog text (5) -
Since our dogs are high-energy bird dogs, almost all owners are hunters or families that include dogs in activities.
Blog text (6) -
She is the best bird dog Hardy has ever had.
Fiction book (1998) -
When I was a boy, my family always had hunting dogs, always bird dogs, once a couple of blueticks, and for six years anywhere from six to fifteen beagles.
Fiction book (2002) -
He has two actual dogs, a big blond hound named Otis and a bird dog named Ike.
Fiction book (2002) -
With a well-trained bird dog at his side, the hunter felt confident about the upcoming expedition.
Synonyms
8
2.3
A dog trained to find and catch animals or birds
1
4.4
A dog trained to swim and fetch ducks during hunting
1
3.8
A dog trained to help hunters by finding and bringing back birds
1
3.4
A dog bred and trained to help hunters find and retrieve game birds
1
5.3
A large dog with curly fur bred to fetch ducks from water
Surface Forms
Morphology
The meaning 'a dog trained to locate and retrieve birds' is directly compositional from 'bird' + 'dog' — a noun+noun compound indicating a type of dog associated with birds. This straightforward, cross-linguistically common compounding pattern is predictable for a B1 learner who knows both constituent words.
Etymology
Bird dog comes from hunting: it names a trained dog that finds and brings back wild birds for the hunter. That's why it means 'a dog trained to locate and retrieve birds'.