Chapter Dog and Duck to Dogmatic Facts of D by Brewer's Phrase & Fable

Dogs (a military term). The 17th Lancers or Duke of Cambridge's Own Lancers. The crest of this famous cavalry regiment is a Death's Head and Cross-bones, OR GLORY, whence the acrostic Death Or Glory (D.O.G.).
   The Spartan injunction, when the young soldier was presented with his shield, was, "With this, or On this," which meant the same thing.

Dogs in Stock-Exchange phraseology, means Newfoundland Telegraph shares - that is, Newfoundland dogs. (See Stock-Exchange Slang.)

Dogs Isle of Dogs. When Greenwich was a place of royal residence, the kennel for the monarch's hounds was on the opposite side of the river, hence called the "Isle of Dogs."

Dogs (Green). Extinct like the Dodo. Brederode said to Count Louis, "I would the whole race of bishops and cardinals were extinct, like that of green dogs." (Motley: Dutch Republic, part ii. 5.)

Dogs'-ears The corners of leaves crumpled and folded down.
   Dogs'-eared. Leaves so crumpled and turned up. The ears of many dogs turn down and seem quite limp.

Dogs'-meat Food unfit for consumption by human beings.
   Dogs'-meat and cats'-meat. Food cheap and nasty.

Dog's-nose Gin and beer.

" `Dog's-nose, which is, I believe, a mixture of
gin and beer.'

" `So it is,' said an old lady." - Pickwick Papers.

Dogged He dogged me, i.e. followed me about like a dog; shadowed me.

Dogged (2 syl.). Sullen, snappish, like a dog.

Dogaressa (g = j). The wife of a doge.

Dogberry An ignorant, self-satisfied, overbearing, but good-natured night-constable in Shakespeare's Much Ado about Nothing.

Doge (1 syl., g = j). The chief magistrate in Venice while it was a Republic. The first duke or doge was Anafesto Paoluccio, created 697. The chief magistrate of Genoa was called a doge down to 1797, when the Republican form of Government was abolished by the French. (Latin, dux, a "duke" or "leader."

"For six hundred years ... her [Venice's] government was an elective monarchy, her ... doge possessing, in early times at least, as much independent authority as any other European sovereign." -Ruskin: Stones of Venice, vol. i. chap. i.p. 3.

   Doge. The ceremony of wedding the Adriatic was instituted in 1174 by Pope Alexander III., who gave the doge a gold ring from off his own finger in token of the victory achieved by the Venetian fleet at Istria over Frederick Barbarossa, in defence of the Pope's quarrel. When his Holiness gave the ring he desired the doge to throw a similar one into the sea every year on Ascension Day, in commemoration of the event. (See Bucentaur.)
   Dirty dog. (See under DOG, No. 5.)
   This alludes more to the animal called a dog, but implies the idea of badness.

Dogget Dogget's coat and badge. The first prize in the Thames rowing-match, given on the 1st of August every year. So called from Thomas Dogget, an actor of Drury Lane, who signalised the accession of George I. to the throne by giving a waterman's coat and badge to the winner of the race. The Fishmongers' Company add a guinea to the prize. The race is from the "Swan" at London Bridge to the "Swan" at Chelsea.

Doggerel Inferior sort of verse in rhymes.

Dogma (Greek). A religious doctrine formally stated. It now means a statement resting on the ipse dixit of the speaker. Dogmatic teaching used to mean the teaching of religious doctrines, but now dogmatic