See a man about a dog - wikipedia See a man about a dog To see a man about a dog or horse is an English idiom, usually used as a way to apologize for one 's imminent departure or absence -- generally to euphemistically conceal one 's true purpose, such as going to use the toilet or going to buy a drink. The original, non-facetious meaning was probably to place or settle a bet on a racing dog. Historical usage The earliest confirmed publication is the 1866 Dion Boucicault play Flying Scud in which a character knowingly breezes past a difficult situation saying, `` Excuse me Mr. Quail, I ca n't stop ; I 've got to see a man about a dog. '' In a listing for a 1939 revival on the NBC Radio program America 's Lost Plays, Time magazine observed that the phrase was the play 's `` claim to fame ''. During Prohibition in the United States, the phrase was most commonly used in relation to the consumption or purchase of alcoholic beverages. References Jump up ^ Ayto, John ( 2006 ). Brewer 's Dictionary of Modern Phrase & Fable. Ian Crofton. Sterling Publishing Company, Inc. The fiction is that one is going to place a bet on a dog in a race. Jump up ^ First performance Holborn Theatre Royal, London on October 6, 1866 : The Times, 8 October 1866 ; pg. 7 ; Issue 25623 ; col F. First U.S. production at Wallack 's Theatre on April 24, 1867 : The New York Times 25 April 1867 Jump up ^ Doug Lennox ( 2003 ). Now You Know : The Book of Answers. Dundurn Press Ltd. ISBN 1 - 55002 - 575 - 9. `` Seeing a man about a dog '' comes from the 1866 play Flying Scud where a character says `` Excuse me Mr. Quail, I ca n't stop ; I 've got to see a man about a dog '' meaning he needs to leave the room -- and fast. ^ Jump up to : Quinion, Michael. `` See a Man About a Dog ''. WorldWideWords.org. Retrieved November 4, 2010. Jump up ^ `` Prestige Programs ''. Time magazine. July 17, 1939. Retrieved December 29, 2007. This week the Lost Plays series presents Flying Scud, one of six lost dramas by Dion Boucicault. Its claim to fame : the line `` I 've got to see a man about a dog. '' Further reading Ayto, John. Oxford Slang. 1998. Farmer, J.S. and W.E. Henley. Slang and its Analogues. 1986. Chapman, Robert L. Dictionary of American Slang. 1995. Matthews, Mitford M. A Dictionary of Americanisms. 1951. Spears, Richard A. Slang and Euphemism. 1981. Spears, Richard A. The Slang and Jargon of Drugs and Drink. 1986. Retrieved from `` https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=See_a_man_about_a_dog&oldid=826763620 '' Categories : Figures of speech Slang Sociolinguistics Talk About Wikipedia Add links This page was last edited on 20 February 2018, at 21 : 48 ( UTC ). About Wikipedia

Question: where did the phrase going to see a man about a horse come from
Answer: the 1866 Dion Boucicault play Flying Scud