Word of the Day : March 8, 2018

bird-dog \BERD-dawg\ verb

Definition

1 : to watch closely

2 : to seek out : follow, detect

Did You Know?

People began using bird-dog as a verb meaning "to closely watch someone or something" or "to doggedly seek out someone or something" in the early 20th century. Both meanings reflect skills likely to be possessed by a well-trained bird dog—that is, a hunting dog trained to hunt or retrieve birds. By the 1930s, bird-dogging was being used specifically as a term for stealing someone else's date. And, not long after that, it began to be used for the scouting out of customers or prospective talent. The noun bird dog refers to the canines one would expect, and is also used as a name for the date stealers and scouts who do the bird-dogging.

Learn a new word every day, delivered to your inbox!

Test Your Vocabulary



  New Words 2018 Quiz






    The word embiggen (“to make bigger or more expansive”) began to be used in what decade?




                                  1990s
                                  2000s
                                  1970s
                                  1930s







    Can you spell these 10 commonly misspelled words?
    TAKE THE QUIZ





    Test Your Knowledge - and learn some interesting things along the way.
    TAKE THE QUIZ

Aired March 8, 2018

All Merriam-Webster content is available at www.merriam-webster.com