hangdog

plural hangdogs

1. A base, degraded person.

   Synonyms: sneak, gallows bird, crack-hemp, crack-rope, gallows, gallows bird, hang dog, hempie

1. not comparableLow; sneaking; ashamed.

   The poor colonel went out of the room with a hangdog look.

   1852, William Makepeace Thackeray, The History of Henry Esmond

   3 more examples

   Asper Argo, the Well-Beloved, Commdor of the Korellian Republic greeted his wife’s entry by a hangdog lowering of his scanty eyebrows. To her at least, his self-adopted epithet did not apply. Even he knew that.

   1951, Isaac Asimov, Foundation (1974 Panther Books Ltd publication), part V: “The Merchant Princes”, chapter 16, page 180

   He looked at them in a kind of dread, not daring to ask for details; and he observed that they, too, looked as though they had been in a battle; something hangdog in their looks suggested that they had been put to flight.

   1953, James Baldwin, “The Seventh Day”, in Go Tell It on the Mountain (Penguin Classics), London: Penguin Books, published 2001, →ISBN

   Adam Sandler hangdog in the Levi’s Stadium stands, Jon Bon Jovi mooching on the sideline like a retired dentist on a cruise, Billie Joe Armstrong belting out American Idiot during the pre-game show under his motionless meringue of fogey-blond hair: were they a sign?

   2026 February 9, Aaron Timms, “Bad Bunny and jingoism lite: was this the Super Bowl where woke roared back?”, in The Guardian, →ISSN

present singular third person hangdogs · participle present hangdogging · participle past hangdogged · past hangdogged

1. To move or loiter in a sneaking or ashamed manner.

   With a twenty-one to three victory, Pinewood high-stepped it off the field while our Falcons hangdogged their way to the locker room.

   2012, Wendy Delsol, Flock, page 230

   1 more example

   Just a few stragglers left hangdogging around, latchkey types with no place to be, cutting up in the dim and bleachered gym perimeter.

   2017, David Eric Tomlinson, The Midnight Man, page 37