Meanings
verbwag the dog (third-person singular simple present wags the dog, present participle wagging the dog, simple past and past participle wagged the dog)
present singular third person wags the dog · participle present wagging the dog · participle past wagged the dog · past wagged the dog
- idiomaticgovernmentTo divert negative political attention by use of a military operation.
- Used in a phrasal verb: the tail wags the dog: to control, as a minor part, a larger thing; to be the tail wagging the dog.
Origin
From the tail wagging the dog / the tail wags the dog, first used in the 1858 play, Our American Cousin. The shortened form with the political sense was popularized by the film Wag the Dog (1997).
Full word history & related roots →Cite this entry
APA
wag the dog. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 5, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/wag%20the%20dog
MLA
“wag the dog.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/wag%20the%20dog. Accessed November 5, 2026.
Chicago
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “wag the dog,” accessed November 5, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/wag%20the%20dog.
Source: wag the dog on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.