Word.ws English Dictionary

junkyard dog

junkyard dog noun: an aggressive dog which guards a scrapyard or junkyard.

Noun

junkyard dog (plural junkyard dogs)

  1. (literally) An aggressive dog which guards a scrapyard or junkyard.
    • I saw nine dogs running en pack on South Washington Avenue ... They were making for a junkyard that appeared to be their headquarters ... And those junkyard dogs do make nights hideous for the neighbors1936 July 23, “Dan D. Lyon”, in Scranton Republican, page 4
  2. (broadly, idiomatic) An animal or person with an especially nasty and combative demeanor.
    • Badder than old King Kong / And meaner than a junkyard dog1973 Jim Croce, "Bad, Bad Leroy Brown", from the album Life and Times (song lyrics)
    • House minority whip . . . Gingrich has earned enmity in abundance for his junkyard-dog tactics.1992 September 21, Janice Castro, “With Friends Like These ...”, in Time
  3. A hot dog laden with toppings, such as onions, pineapple, or chili.

junkyard dog meaning in Bengali

junkyard dog in Bengali

পেঁয়াজ

Forms of junkyard dog

pluraljunkyard dogs

Origin of junkyard dog

From junkyard + dog. The literal sense was popularized by the song Bad, Bad Leroy Brown (1973) by Jim Croce (see citation below).

Questions about junkyard dog

What does junkyard dog mean?
Junkyard dog means an aggressive dog which guards a scrapyard or junkyard.
What is junkyard dog in Bengali?
Junkyard dog in Bengali is পেঁয়াজ. See Junkyard dog meaning in Bengali.
What part of speech is junkyard dog?
Junkyard dog is a noun.
What is the plural of junkyard dog?
The plural of junkyard dog is junkyard dogs.

Words near junkyard dog in the dictionary

  1. junkspace
  2. junkspaces
  3. junkware
  4. junky
  5. junkyard
  6. junkyard dog
  7. junkyard dogs
  8. junkyard-dog
  9. junkyard-dogs
  10. junkyards
  11. junkyism

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: junkyard dog (page history and authors); junkyard dog (Bengali Wiktionary) (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-au-junkyard dog.ogg.

Cite this entry: “junkyard dog.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/junkyard_dog. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.