dogtrot

English

Etymology

From Middle English dogge trot; equivalent to dog +‎ trot.

Noun

dogtrot (plural dogtrots)

1. A steady trotting motion similar to that of a dog.
2. (architecture, Southern US) A breezeway, open passageway, or open hallway between two sections of a house.
   • 1970, Donald Harington, Lightning Bug:

     Old Billy Dill and his ugly wife and son are sitting together in the dogtrot.

   • 2007, Allen George Noble, Traditional Buildings: A Global Survey of Structural Forms and Cultural Functions‎^[1] (Architecture), I.B. Tauris, →ISBN, page 34:

     The dogtrot was protected from the rain and, because its front and back were open, the Bernoulli principle provided a cooling effect ...

3. (architecture, Southern US) A type of house with an open breezeway or hallway between two sections of a house.
   • 2007, Allen George Noble, Traditional Buildings: A Global Survey of Structural Forms and Cultural Functions‎^[2] (Architecture), I.B. Tauris, →ISBN, page 33:

     One Appalachian solution to the problem of adding needed living space to an existing small cabin was the dogtrot, sometimes called the dogrun, possum trot, two pens-and-a-passage, double house, or erroneously the double pen.

Verb

dogtrot (third-person singular simple present dogtrots, present participle dogtrotting, simple past and past participle dogtrotted)

1. (intransitive) To move at the pace of a dogtrot.
   • 1989, Sue Grafton, "E" is for Evidence (Fiction), Crimeline, →ISBN:

     The stewardess released us like a pack of noisy school kids and I dogtrotted toward the gate.

Adjective

dogtrot (not comparable)

1. (architecture, Southern US) Having an open breezeway or hallway between two sections of a house.
   • 1977, Charles van Ravenswaay, The Arts and Architecture of German Settlements in Missouri‎^[3], reprint edition (History), University of Missouri Press, published 2006, →ISBN, page 131:

     If America can claim any significant development in log construction, it might be the dogtrot cabin, … Henry Glassie believes that the dogtrot form developed in the southern Tennessee Valley area ...

See also

• breezeway on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• dogtrot house on Wikipedia.Wikipedia