Word.ws English Dictionary

alpha-dogs

alpha-dogs is the third-person singular simple present indicative of alpha-dog.

Meaning of alpha-dog

Verb

alpha-dog (third-person singular simple present alpha-dogs, present participle alpha-dogging, simple past and past participle alpha-dogged)

  1. (US, informal) To behave like an alpha dog; to behave in a crassly dominant manner, especially at the expense of another male.
    • At the left was Mr. Trump, the volatile presence who alpha-dogged a season of Republican debates. Now he grimaced, squinted, nodded, pursed his lips, sniffed, huffed and interrupted, becoming, over the night, an agitated man in a box.2016 September 27, James Poniewozik, “How the Split Screen Framed Trump and Clinton”, in The New York Times

Questions about alpha-dogs

What is alpha-dogs the third-person singular simple present indicative of?
Alpha-dogs is the third-person singular simple present indicative of alpha-dog.

Words near alpha-dogs in the dictionary

  1. alpha-d-galactosidase
  2. alpha-d-galactosidases
  3. alpha-dog
  4. alpha-dogged
  5. alpha-dogging
  6. alpha-dogs
  7. alpha-ed up
  8. alpha-fetoprotein
  9. alpha-foetoprotein
  10. alpha-gal
  11. alpha-gal allergy

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: alpha-dogs (page history and authors); alpha-dog (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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