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Webster 1913 Edition

(-dŏgˊ)

Noun.

A base, degraded person; a sneak; a gallows bird.

Adj.

Low; sneaking; ashamed.

The poor colonel went out of the room with a

hangdog

look.

Thackeray.

See also: hang-dog and hang dog

hangdog ‎(plural hangdogs)

A base, degraded person

hangdog ‎(not comparable)

Low; sneaking; ashamed.
- ?, Thackeray
  The poor colonel went out of the room with a hangdog look.
- 1951, Isaac Asimov, Foundation (1974 Panther Books Ltd publication), part V: “The Merchant Princes”, chapter 16, page 180, ¶ 6
  Asper Argo, the Well-Beloved, Commdor of the Korellian Republic greeted his wife’s entry by a hangdog lowering of his scanty eyebrows. To her at least, his self-adopted epithet did not apply. Even he knew that.

sneaking; ashamed