Seeing Eye dog
- noun
- /ˈsiːɪŋ aɪ dɔɡ/
- During the event, I saw a Seeing Eye dog guiding its owner safely across the road.
- get a Seeing Eye dog
Examples
-
The tires screeched as the car rounded a tight turn, and Ruth's new Seeing Eye dog, a golden retriever, whimpered in the back seat.
Fiction book (2002) -
Oh, my brother, that's a seeing-eye dog.
-
And this here is my baby, my seeing eye dog.
-
This is my seeing eye dog.
-
What do you need, a seeing-eye dog?
-
He's in training to be a seeing eye dog.
-
I need a seeing-eye dog.
-
He's my Seeing Eye dog.
-
Seeing eye dogs are usually German shepherds.
-
Like a seeing-eye dog, his sister leads him through the terminal's automatic doors.
Fiction book (1994)
Synonyms
A dog trained to lead and help a person who cannot see
Surface Forms
Morphology
The components 'seeing' + 'eye' + 'dog' directly signal a dog related to vision; a learner who knows the words will naturally infer a dog that helps someone see or guides a visually impaired person. Although historically a trademark, the referential meaning 'guide dog' is compositionally clear and cross-linguistically transparent, so it should be immediately understandable to a B1 learner.
Etymology
Seeing Eye dog comes from the simple image of a Seeing Eye, a dog acting like a person's 'eyes' when they cannot see. A training school used that name long ago, so today the phrase means a trained dog that guides a blind person.