Chapter Doctrinists to Dog of D by Brewer's Phrase & Fable

sin and return to their sins (2 Peter ii. 21).
   There is no expression in the Bible of the fidelity, love, and watchful care of the dog, so highly honoured by ourselves.
   (7) DOG in art.
   Dog, in mediaeval art, symbolises fidelity.
   A dog is represented as lying at the feet of St. Bernard, St. Benignus, and St. Wendelin; as licking the wounds of St. Roch; as carrying a lighted torch in representations of St. Dominic.
   Dogs in monuments. The dog is placed at the feet of women in monuments to symbolise affection and fidelity, as a lion is placed at the feet of men to signify courage and magnanimity. Many of the Crusaders are represented with their feet on a dog, to show that they followed the standard of the Lord as faithfully as a dog follows the footsteps of his master.
   (8) DOG in proverbs, fables, and proverbial phrases:
   Barking dogs seldom bite. (See Barking.)
   Dog don't eat dog. Ecclesia ecclesiam non decimat; government letters are not taxed; church lands pay no tithes to the church.
   A black dog has walked over him. Said of a sullen person. Horace tells us that the sight of a black dog with its pups was an unlucky omen. (See Black Dog.)
   A dog in the manger. A churlish fellow, who will not use what is wanted by another, nor yet let the other have it to use. The allusion is to the well-known fable of a dog that fixed his place in a manger, and would not allow an ox to come near the hay.
   Every dog has his day. In Latin, "Hodie mihi, cras tibi." "Nunc mihi, nunc tibi, benigna" [fortuna]. In German, "Heute mir, morgen dir." You may crow over me to-day, but my turn will come by-and-by. The Latin proverb, "Hodie mihi, " etc., means, "I died to-day, your turn will come in time." The other Latin proverb means, fortune visits every man once. She favours me now, but she will favour you in your turn.

"Thus every dog at last will have his day -
He who this morning smiled, at night may sorrow;
The grub to-day's a butterfly to-morrow."
Peter Pindar: Odes of Condolence.

   Give a dog a bad name and hang him. If you want to do anyone a wrong, throw dirt on him or rail against him.
   Gone to the dogs. Gone to utter ruin; impoverished.
   He has not a dog to lick a dish. He has quite cleared out. He has taken away everything.
   He who has a mind to beat his dog will easily find a stick. In Latin, "Qui vult caedere canem facile invenit fustem. " If you want to abuse a person, you will easily find something to blame. Dean Swift says, "If you want to throw a stone, every lane will furnish one."
"To him who wills, ways will not be wanting." "Where there's a will there's a way."
   Hungry dogs will eat dirty pudding. Those really hungry are not particular about what they eat, and are by no means dainty. When Darius in his flight from Greece drank from a ditch defiled with dead carcases, he declared he had never drunk so pleasantly before.
   It was the story of the dog and the shadow - i.e. of one who throws good money after bad; of one who gives certa pro incertis. The allusion is to the well-known fable.

"Illudit species, ac dentibus aëra mordit."
(Down sank the meat in the stream for the fishes to hoard it.)

   Love me love my dog. "Qui m'aime aime mon chien," or "Qui aime Bertrand aime son chien. "
   Old dogs will not learn new tricks. People in old age do not readily conform to new ways.
   To call off the dogs. To break up a disagreeable conversation. In the chase, if the dogs are on the wrong track, the huntsman calls them off. (French, rompre les chiens.)
   Throw it to the dogs. Throw it away, it is useless and worthless.
   What! keep a dog and bark myself! Must I keep servants and myself do their work?
   You are like Neville's dog, which runs away when it is called. (See Chien.)
   (9) DOG, DOGS, in Superstitions:
   Dogs howl at death. A wide-spread superstition.

"In the rabbinical book it saith
The dogs howl when, with icy breath,
Great Sammaël, the angel of death,
Takes thro' the town his flight."
Longfellow: Golden Legend, iii.

   The hair of the dog that bit you. When a man has had a debauch, he is advised to take next morning "a hair of the same dog," in allusion to an ancient notion that the burnt hair of a dog is an antidote to its bite.
   (10) DOG, to express the male of animals, as dog-ape, dog-fox, dog-otter.
   (11) DOG, applied to inferior plants: dog-brier, dog-berry, dog-cabbage, dog-daisy, dog-fennel, dog-leek, dog-lichen, dog-mercury, dog-parsley, dog-violets (which have no perfume), dog-wheat. (See below, Dog-Grass, Dog-Rose.)