cone of shame
- noun
- /koʊn əv ʃeɪm/
- Informal
:
cono de la vergüenza
- The vet advised that the cone of shame is important for protecting his wound during recovery.
Examples
-
After surgery, my dog wore the cone of shame to prevent him from licking his stitches.
-
Vader, by the way, Vader is in the cone of shame, the cone of shame.
-
I took off the cone of shame and I have a bit of a kind of sort of sock impromptu MacGyver thing that I've done on her foot, which is working just fine.
-
She's been so sad wearing the cone of shame, but it's necessary to help her heal.
Surface Forms
Morphology
The noun 'cone' names a literal object and 'shame' signals an embarrassing quality, so a learner who knows both words can infer this refers to a cone that causes embarrassment (i.e., an embarrassing cone). However, the precise referent — a plastic protective pet collar used to stop licking or biting after surgery — is a culturally specific, informal usage not fully predictable from the parts, so full meaning requires exposure.
Etymology
Cone of shame comes from the plastic cone vets put around a pet's head after surgery to stop it from licking or biting a wound. The collar is a cone, and because pets often look 'ashamed' wearing it, people jokingly called it a 'cone of shame', so today the phrase means that protective collar.
