dog-eared
Language: English
Part of speech: adj
Pronunciation: ipa: /ˈdɒɡɪəd/
ipa: /ˈdɔɡˌɪ(ə)ɹd/
ipa: /ˈdɑɡ-/
Forms: form: more dog-eared
form: most dog-eared
form: dogeared
form: dog eared
form: dog's-eared
Etymology: From dog + eared (“having ears (of a specified type)”), modelled after dog’s-ear (obsolete), due to the similarity of their appearance to the folded ears of certain dogs. The word is analysable as dog-ear (“to fold the corner of a book’s page”) + -ed (suffix forming possessional adjectives) (dog-ear is attested in print later than dog-eared).
Senses: examples: text: By thumbing to the dog-eared pages, she quickly found the items in the catalog she wanted to order.
text: The pages in his favourite book were dog-eared from years of reading it at bedtime.
text: There was the huge Italian cassone, with its fantastically painted panels and its tarnished gilt mouldings, in which he had so often hidden himself as a boy. There the satinwood book-case filled with his dog-eared schoolbooks.
ref: 1891, Oscar Wilde, chapter 10, in The Picture of Dorian Gray, London; New York, N.Y.; Melbourne, Vic.: Ward Lock & Co., →OCLC:
text: To the uninitiated it may seem strange to behold a Harvard graduate stuck down day after day poring over a pile of dog-eared school-books— third arithmetics, primary grammars, beginners' histories of Tennessee, of the United States, of England; physiology, hygiene. It may seem queer. But when it comes to standing a Wayne County teacher's examination, the specific answers to the specific questions on a dozen old examination slips are worth all the degrees Harvard ever did confer.
ref: 1921, Thomas Sigismund Stribling, “Chapter IV”, in Birthrigt:
text: Dog-eared tomes litter his sitting room, filled with lovely names – Sailor, Scandal, Saucebox, Starlight, Siren, to take a few from a random page of the directory for 1875.
ref: 2002 September 19, Stephen Moss, “Don’t spare the horses – riders set off for hunt rally”, in Alan Rusbridger, editor, The Guardian, London: Guardian News & Media, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 09 Sep 2014:
glosses: Of a page in a book or other publication: having its corner folded down, either due to having been read many times, or intentionally as a sort of bookmark.
examples: text: This is the old, old pain come home once more,
Bent down with answers wild and very lame
For all my delving in old dog-eared lore
That drove the Sages mad. And boots the world
Aught for their wisdom?
ref: 1919, Francis Ledwidge, The Complete Poems of Francis Ledwidge, An Old Pain:
text: All this is somewhat unfair to Spetters which, in spite of all of its borrowings, and conventional form, manages to remain remarkably fresh and original. Director Verhoeven seems to specialize in turning dogeared plots into nice silk purses of movies.
ref: 1983 April 23, Michael Bronski, “Coming of Age, Dutch Style”, in Gay Community News, page 13:
synonyms: word: clapped out
word: damaged
word: defective
word: deteriorated
word: dilapidated
word: effete
word: faulty
word: munted
word: outworn
word: passé
word: raddled
word: ragged
word: ravaged
word: rinky-dink
word: shabby
word: unimproved
word: wasted
word: weakened
word: wrecked
word: wrecksome
word: worn
word: worn-out
word: worsened
word: banal
word: bromidic
word: quotidian
word: clichéd
word: commonplace
word: cookie-cutter
word: corny
word: dog-eared
word: everyday
word: hackneyed
word: hoary
word: meh
word: overdone
word: pat
word: played out
word: prosaic
word: shopworn
word: stale
word: stock
word: threadbare
word: timeworn
word: tired
word: trite
word: unoriginal
word: vapid
word: warmed-over
word: well-worn
antonyms: word: fresh
word: original
word: old
glosses: Ragged, worn-out; also, hackneyed, tired.
Derived terms: english: a possible back-formation
translation: a possible back-formation
word: dog-ear
word: dog-earedness
Related terms: word: dog-ear
word: well-thumbed