dog's dinner

English

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /dɒɡz ˈdɪnə/

• Audio (General Australian):

  (file)

Noun

dog's dinner (plural dogs' dinners)

1. (Ireland, UK, Australia, New Zealand, slang) A complete mess.

   Synonyms: dog's breakfast; see also Thesaurus:disorder

   to make a dog's dinner (of)

   • 1986, Nicolas Freeling, Cold Iron:

     The Polizei had made a dog's dinner of this. Vera would have done better, no doubt of it. It now remained to be seen whether the Law would do better.

   • 1997, Norma Harrs, Where Dreams Have Gone:

     She must look like a real dog's dinner. No wonder he'd been looking over her head to the girl who took the coats.

   • 2004 March 6, Julie Burchill, “Welcome to the world of the Stepford Sluts”, in Times Online‎^[1], retrieved 29 November 2010:

     Just think; without that Mrs Pankhurst and her wrecking crew jumping under racehorses (phwooar!) and chaining themselves to railings (kinky!), these young women would be out getting an education and respecting their own sexuality, not getting themselves up like dog’s dinners and being the passive playthings of men.

   • 2007, Mark Bland, Early Modern Manuscript and Printed Book Studies:

     The folio text is unevenly spaced (the compositor made a dog's dinner of setting the text), with three spaces closed up...

Related terms

• done up like a dog's dinner
• dressed up like a dog's dinner