mad-dog
English
[edit]Noun
[edit]- Attributive form of mad dog
- 1970, J. Spencer Grendahl, The mad dog press archives: a novel, page 105:
- These are mad-dog times, man!
- 2014, Collin Wilcox, Night Games, →ISBN:
- Then she calls the cops, reports your standard mad-dog black burglar.
- 2014, William W. Johnstone, Tyranny in the Ashes, →ISBN:
- All we have to do is kill the mad-dog Nicaraguan who oppresses our people, calling himself a soldier.
- 2014, Don Pendleton, Detroit Deathwatch, →ISBN:
- And, now, these same cynical cops were being asked to shoot that dude on sight, to treat him like a mad-dog psychopath—the sanest guy in town.
- (rare) Alternative form of mad dog
- 1839, Thomas Wright, An Essay on the State of Literature and Learning Under the Anglo-Saxons, page 99:
- Against the bite of a mad-dog : take two onions or three, boil them, spread them in ashes, mix them with fat and honey, lay it on.
- 2012, Dr. B. R. Suhas, Prof. L. S. Seshagiri Rao, Louis Pasteur, →ISBN:
- To detect the microbes, he had to collect the saliva of a mad-dog.
- 2013, J. B. Sidgwick, The Shorter Poems of Walter Savage Landor, →ISBN, page 89:
- Like mad-dog in the hottest day Byron runs snapping strait away, And those unlucky fellows judge ill Who go without a whip or cudgel.
- 2015 November 23, James Butty, “Nigeria's Military Vows to Destroy Boko Haram as Attacks Continue”, in Voice of America:
- It's also a proof that the newly appointed mad-dogs may be the same bad-eggs of the system that squandered the defense budget, sided with the insurgents and fought the country.
Adjective
[edit]mad-dog (comparative more mad-dog, superlative most mad-dog)
- Fanatically or irrationally ferocious.
- 1908, The Spectator - Volume 100, page 748:
- It takes a professor to arrive at so mad-dog a state of mind.
- 1975, J. M. Barrie, Peter Pan in Kensington Gardens, →ISBN:
- In the Broad Walk you meet all the people who are worth knowing, and there is usually a grown-up with them to prevent them going on the damp grass, and to make them stand disgraced at the corner of a seat if they have been mad-dog or Mary-Annish.
- 2011, Les Standiford, Havana Run: A John Deal Mystery, →ISBN:
- You probably never heard of Mr. Dobbins, since it looks like you live in some other dimension, but Dobbins happens to be the most mad-dog, publicity-hungry attorney to walk the planet.
Usage notes
[edit]It can be difficult to distinguish between the standard practice of inserting a hyphen into a noun phrase when it is used attributively (that is, using mad-dog for the noun phrase mad dog) and the use of this term as a genuine adjective. There is evidence that this form is sometimes used as a genuine adjective, as can be seen in the quotations. However, the most common usage is as an attributive noun.