doggery

plural doggeries

1. countableobsoleteA squalid tavern.

   There is an enemy of religion here, who […] keeps a public house, and also a "doggery." […] By his "doggery," he keeps around him a gang of ten or fifteen of the most abandoned persons, whom he employs as assistants in carrying out his nefarious schemes. When intoxicated, he is most abusive; […]

   1846, Home Missionary, volume 19, page 125

   1 more example

   1829. Atwater Remarks Made on a Tour to Prairie du Chien.... Page 59 in context of mixed race community at of Am. Fur Co. station at Keokuck, Iowa: "their lights on the rapids, in a dark night, were darting about, appearing and disappearing like so many fire flies; the constant roaring of the waters on the rapids, the occasional Indian yell, the lights of their fires on the shore, and the boisterous mirth of the people at the doggery, attracted my attention occasionally, while we were lying here." and at Galena in lead region p.192 "Mr Gratiot has a large lead furnace here; and there is a store of dry goods, but no doggery in the village."

2. dateduncountableBestial or underhand behaviour.

   Then it is all doggery and devilry and there is no God and no mercy.

   1935, Frank Philpott Bacon, The Use of Spiritualism in the Drama, page 126

   2 more examples

   "There's a lot of 'doggery' about this business," my informant added musingly.

   1908, The Nation, volume 4, page 379

   They fed on oily carcasses washed down with rum, brawled away the evenings, and collapsed each night in drunken stupor. After a week of this doggery, they made the rounds again, gathering freshly laid eggs, […]

   1961, Boys' Life, volume 51, number 11, page 13

3. uncountableDogs generally; the realm or sphere of dogs.

   […] we'd distinguish an "entelechial" dog, the "compleat" dog toward which all doggery variously aspires […]

   1967, Stanley Romaine Hopper, David LeRoy Miller, Interpretation: the Poetry of Meaning, page 84