dog-eared
UK/ˈdɒɡɪəd//ˈdɔɡˌɪ(ə)ɹd/
dog-eared adjective: 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.
Adjective
dog-eared (comparative more dog-eared, superlative most dog-eared)
- 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.
- By thumbing to the dog-eared pages, she quickly found the items in the catalog she wanted to order.
- The pages in his favourite book were dog-eared from years of reading it at bedtime.
- Ragged, worn-out; also, hackneyed, tired.
- 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?1919, Francis Ledwidge, The Complete Poems of Francis Ledwidge, An Old Pain - 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.1983 April 23, Michael Bronski, “Coming of Age, Dutch Style”, in Gay Community News, page 13
- Synonyms:
- clapped out, damaged, defective, deteriorated, dilapidated, effete, faulty, munted, outworn, passé
- This is the old, old pain come home once more,
Examples of dog-eared in a sentence
- There the satinwood book-case filled with his dog-eared schoolbooks.1891, Oscar Wilde, chapter 10, in The Picture of Dorian Gray, London; New York, N.Y.: Ward Lock & Co., →OCLC:
- 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 1875.2002 September 19, Stephen Moss, “Don’t spare the horses – riders set off for hunt rally”, in Alan Rusbridger, editor, The Guardian...
Synonyms of dog-eared
30 more synonymsFewer synonyms
Antonyms
10 more antonymsFewer antonyms
Forms of dog-eared
| comparative | more dog-eared |
|---|---|
| superlative | most dog-eared |
| alternative form | dogeared |
| alternative form | dog eared |
| alternative form | dog's-eared |
Origin of dog-eared
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).
Words formed from dog-eared
Questions about dog-eared
- What does dog-eared mean?
- Dog-eared means 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.
- How do you use dog-eared in a sentence?
- There the satinwood book-case filled with his dog-eared schoolbooks.
- What part of speech is dog-eared?
- Dog-eared is an adjective.
- How do you pronounce dog-eared?
- Dog-eared is pronounced /ˈdɒɡɪəd/ (UK).
Words near dog-eared in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: dog-eared (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.
Last updated:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: En-us-dog-eared.oga.
Cite this entry: “dog-eared.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/dog-eared. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.