puppyhood
English
[edit]Etymology
[edit]Noun
[edit]puppyhood (countable and uncountable, plural puppyhoods)
- The state of being a puppy (young dog).
- 1887, Harriet W. Daly, Digging, Squatting, and Pioneering Life in the Northern Territory of South Australia, page 95:
- "The snake," I whispered, feeling very frightened at what had become of our dog, for we were devoted to him, having brought him up from his puppyhood.
- (by extension) Youth and adolescence, especially that of a conceited and impertinent young man.
- 1903 July, Jack London, “Into the Primitive”, in The Call of the Wild, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company; London: Macmillan & Co., →OCLC, pages 18–19:
- During the four years since his puppyhood he had lived the life of a sated aristocrat; he had a fine pride in himself, was even a trifle egotistical, as country gentlemen sometimes become because of their insular situation.