English

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 (Architecture), I.B. Tauris, ISBN 9781845113056, 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 (Architecture), I.B. Tauris, ISBN 9781845113056, 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. To move at the pace of a dogtrot

   • 1989, Sue Grafton, "E" is for Evidence (Fiction), Crimeline, ISBN 9780553279559:

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

Adjective

dogtrot ‎(comparative more dogtrot, superlative most dogtrot)

1. (architecture, Southern US) The design or form of house with an open breezeway or hallway between two sections of a house

   • 1977, Charles van Ravenswaay, The Arts and Architecture of German Settlements in Missouri (History), reprint edition, University of Missouri Press, published 2006, ISBN 9780826217004, 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