mad-dog

plural mad-dogs

1. attributiveAttributive form of mad dog

   These are mad-dog times, man!

   1970, J. Spencer Grendahl, The mad dog press archives: a novel, page 105

   3 more examples

   Then she calls the cops, reports your standard mad-dog black burglar.

   2014, Collin Wilcox, Night Games, →ISBN

   All we have to do is kill the mad-dog Nicaraguan who oppresses our people, calling himself a soldier.

   2014, William W. Johnstone, Tyranny in the Ashes, →ISBN

   And, now, these same cynical cops were being asked to shoot that dude on sight, to treat him like a mad-dog psychopath—the sanest guy in town.

   2014, Don Pendleton, Detroit Deathwatch, →ISBN

2. alternativerareAlternative form of mad dog.

   To detect the microbes, he had to collect the saliva of a mad-dog.

   2012, Dr. B. R. Suhas, Prof. L. S. Seshagiri Rao, Louis Pasteur, →ISBN

   3 more examples

   Against the bite of a mad-dog : take two onions or three, boil them, spread them in ashes, mix them with fat and honey, lay it on.

   1839, Thomas Wright, An Essay on the State of Literature and Learning Under the Anglo-Saxons, page 99

   Like mad-dog in the hottest day Byron runs snapping strait away, And those unlucky fellows judge ill Who go without a whip or cudgel.

   2013, J. B. Sidgwick, The Shorter Poems of Walter Savage Landor, →ISBN, page 89

   It's also a proof that the newly appointed mad-dogs may be the same bad-eggs of the system that squandered the defense budget, sided with the insurgents and fought the country.

   2015 November 23, James Butty, “Nigeria's Military Vows to Destroy Boko Haram as Attacks Continue”, in Voice of America

comparative more mad-dog · superlative most mad-dog

1. Fanatically or irrationally ferocious.

   It takes a professor to arrive at so mad-dog a state of mind.

   1908, The Spectator - Volume 100, page 748

   2 more examples

   In the Broad Walk you meet all the people who are worth knowing, and there is usually a grown-up with them to prevent them going on the damp grass, and to make them stand disgraced at the corner of a seat if they have been mad-dog or Mary-Annish.

   1975, J. M. Barrie, Peter Pan in Kensington Gardens, →ISBN

   You probably never heard of Mr. Dobbins, since it looks like you live in some other dimension, but Dobbins happens to be the most mad-dog, publicity-hungry attorney to walk the planet.

   2011, Les Standiford, Havana Run: A John Deal Mystery, →ISBN