dog whistle

plural dog whistles · alternative dogwhistle

1. A high-pitched whistle, generally inaudible to humans, used to train dogs.

   Synonyms: silent whistle, Galton's whistle

2. figurativelyThat which is understood only by a narrow demographic.

   1 more example

   2012, 22 March, Scott Tobias, AV Club Cabin Boyhttps://web.archive.org/web/20131029005716/http://www.avclub.com/articles/cabin-boy,71269/ But like a lot of these cult comedies, Cabin Boy was a dog whistle few could hear, and critics and audiences dismissed it quickly and forcefully: It left theaters with grosses south of $4 million and earned Elliott a “Worst New Star” Razzie nomination, no doubt for the adenoidal voice common to all fancy lads.

3. derogatorysometimesgovernmentA political allusion or comment that only a certain audience is intended to note and recognize the significance of; particularly in relation to controversial or extreme viewpoints.

   “You have to be living under a rock not to know what that statement ["All lives matter"] means. It’s a dog whistle,” Wright reportedly said.

   2022 December 26, Grace Adams, “Former New Roads teacher files lawsuit against school for wrongful termination, discrimination”, in Santa Monica Daily News

   5 more examples

   On the lips of Premier Mike Harris, the term ‘special interest’ has the tone of epithet. It’s an all-purpose dog-whistle that those fed up with feminists, minorities, the undeserving poor hear loud and clear.

   1995 October 15, Jim Coyle, Ottawa Citizen, p a9/1

   Putting “globalist” in quotes suggests a jest or in-joke of sorts, so it’s at least possible this wasn’t intended as some kind of anti-Semitic dog whistle.

   2018 March 9, Bret Stephens, “In Praise of Globalists”, in New York Times

   But just as the usual dog-whistle article in The New York Times about the recently elected incoming government warning that "the far-right government that will soon take power ... marks a qualitative and alarming break with all the other governments in Israel's 75-year history" (only right-wing government are alarming) – and thus resonated with American administration officials.

   2022 December 23, Dror Eydar, “Erasing Jewish history, courtesy of European-Palestinian collaboration”, in Israel Hayom

   But it was in the waning days of the campaign that the sheriff’s use of images of billionaire George Soros, a donor to many liberal causes and a target of frequent attacks from the right, sparked a charge from Democratic officials and others that Hodgson was using a “dog whistle” of antisemitism, a claim the sheriff’s campaign angrily rejected.

   2022 December 24, Tom Reilly, “Top 10 of 2022: Attleboro Mayor Paul Heroux elected Bristol County sheriff, ousting Trump-touting incumbent”, in thesunchronicle.com

   “Many of them are coming from contexts where they associate socialism, or anything close to it, with what they left behind and why they left,” Bustamante explains. “I think Republicans have been very savvy – really ruthless – in exploiting that.” / Or as Regalado, a Republican, puts it: “It’s our dog whistle. And it works every time.”

   2022 December 25, Joshua Chaffin, “Florida’s red wave: How Republicans turned Miami’s Latino voters away from Democrats”, in The Irish Times

   Synonyms: codeword