dog around

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dog around (idiom)
/dɔg əˈraʊnd/

Variants

• dog someone around
• dog me around

Meaning

• To follow someone persistently or closely.
• In other words, shadowing or following someone in a secretive or annoying way.
• Loiter or wander without purpose, wasting time.
• Ignore duties or responsibilities, especially work or studies.
• Mistreat or nag someone, often in a romantic or personal context.

Synonyms: shadow; tail; trail; dawdle; loaf; slack off; mistreat; nag; badger.

Example Sentences

1. The detective was hired to dog around the suspect for a week.
2. Instead of finishing his report, he spent the whole afternoon dogging around in the break room.
3. Students who dog around during exam week often regret it later.
4. She felt he was dogging her around after their relationship soured.
5. Don’t dog me around when I’m asking for a straight answer.

Origin and History

Literal Behavior Connection

The phrase draws from the literal behavior of dogs — following people, hanging around a place, or behaving in a rough or intrusive way. These dog traits were gradually applied to human actions in speech.

Early Popular Use in Songs

A popular American song from the early 1910s contained the phrase “kick my dog around,” showing that the dog-image of mistreatment or persistent attention was already part of everyday language. While not identical to the idiom, it reflects the same imagery that later shaped its meaning.

Development into Slang

By the mid-20th century, “to dog someone around” appeared in American slang, meaning to follow, pester, or treat someone badly. In other informal contexts, “dog around” came to mean loafing, wasting time, or avoiding responsibilities, especially in student and workplace slang.

Alternative Theories

One theory links the phrase to older hunting or military uses of the verb “dog,” meaning to track or pursue. Another suggests it grew out of regional slang where phrases like “dog it” (to shirk) blended with pursuit meanings. These different images may have merged into the versatile idiom used today.

Country of Origin

Evidence from early 20th-century American songs and mid-century slang records strongly points to the U.S. as the place where the modern idiom took shape.

Earliest Printed Record

The earliest known printed image related to the idiom appears in an American song lyric from the early 1910s that included “kick my dog around.” The phrasal verb form “dog (someone) around” appears in American slang print sources by the 1950s and 1960s.

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