Meanings
- USexcessiveidiomaticgovernmentSaid of someone, particularly a politician, who is extremely unpopular.First known use late 19th c.
Men like him couldn't get elected dogcatcher. He was a natural lieutenant, not a leader, and it was a fact he accepted with neither bitterness nor regret.
2006 October, credited to Robert Ludlum, chapter 15, in The Bancroft Strategy, New York, N.Y.: St. Martin’s Press, →ISBN, page 2644 more examples
An insolent Republican newspaper asserts that Mr. [Grover] Cleveland is so unpopular in Washington that he could not be elected dog catcher for the district. This may be true, yet Mr. Cleveland has caught a great many dogs in his day—stealing. His success in that line would naturally make him unpopular with the claims agents and other parasites that throng the capital.
1889 February 18, Chicago Herald, quotee, “Unpopular with rascals”, in The Courier-Journal, volume LXXIV, number 7,355 (New Series), Louisville, Ky.: Louisville Courier-Journal Print. Co., →ISSN, →OCLC, page 4, column 6It is a well known fact that the average American town will not elect well educated men to municipal offices if they can help it. A man who wears kid gloves and a plug hat couldn't be elected dog catcher in any town in Oklahoma. That is why the affirmative wish the city manager to be elected by a commission.
1918 October 15, “The City Manager Plan. [Condenst Paragrafs.]”, in J. W. Scroogs, editor, University of Oklahoma Bulletin (New Series; no. 156; University Extension Series; no. 43), Norman, Okla.: University of Oklahoma, →OCLC, page 60"She [Christine O'Donnell]'s not a viable candidate for any office in the state of Delaware," said the state party chairman, Tom Ross, who is backing [Mike] Castle. "She could not be elected dog catcher."
2010 September 12, Philip Eliot, “GOP Tries to Take Out Tea Party-backed Candidate”, in Yahoo! News, archived from the original on 22 Sep 2010[Donald] Trump, who has a glancing relationship with the truth and speaks English only as a second language, has hurled his insults at [Bob] Corker (whom he said couldn't get elected dog-catcher in his home state) and at [John] McCain – even as he journeyed to Capitol Hill to try to build support for tax reform.
2017 October 25, John L. Micek, “Trump just keeps digging deeper and deeper”, in The Courier-Journal, Louisville, Ky.: Gannett, →ISSN, →OCLC
Origin
Dogcatchers are virtually never elected to their posts; the phrase is hyperbole, using dogcatcher to indicate the most lowly conceivable office.
Full word history & related roots →Translations
Finnish ei äänestäisi kukaan
- ei äänestäisi kukaansaid of someone, particularly a politician, who is extremely unpopular
Polish nie wygrałby wyborów nawet na sołtysa
- nie wygrałby wyborów nawet na sołtysasaid of someone, particularly a politician, who is extremely unpopular
Cite this entry
could not get elected dogcatcher. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 5, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/could%20not%20get%20elected%20dogcatcher
“could not get elected dogcatcher.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/could%20not%20get%20elected%20dogcatcher. Accessed November 5, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “could not get elected dogcatcher,” accessed November 5, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/could%20not%20get%20elected%20dogcatcher.
Source: could not get elected dogcatcher on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.