hangdog

hang +‎ dog

hangdog (plural hangdogs)

1. A base, degraded person.

   Synonyms: sneak, gallows bird; see also Thesaurus:gallows bird

hangdog (not comparable)

1. Low; sneaking; ashamed.
   • 1852, William Makepeace Thackeray, The History of Henry Esmond:

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

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

     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.

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

     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.

hangdog (third-person singular simple present hangdogs, present participle hangdogging, simple past and past participle hangdogged)

1. To move or loiter in a sneaking or ashamed manner.
   • 2012, Wendy Delsol, Flock, page 230:

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

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

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

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