Word.ws English Dictionary

like a dog with a bone

like a dog with a bone adjective: stubborn and tenacious; persistent; relentless; dogged.

Adjective

like a dog with a bone (not comparable)

  1. (informal, simile) Stubborn and tenacious; persistent; relentless; dogged.
    • Despite my determination to put the question off, my mind, or sub-conscious mind, like a dog with a bone which it refuses to drop in defiance of its master's command, went on revolving it.1918, William Henry Hudson, Far Away and Long Ago: A History of My Early Life, page 328
    • I was like a dog with a bone, I wouldn't let go.1932, Louis-Ferdinand Céline, Ralph Manheim, trans. 1982, Journey to the End of the Night, page 67

Synonyms of like a dog with a bone

Forms of like a dog with a bone

alternative formlike a dog after a bone

Questions about like a dog with a bone

What does like a dog with a bone mean?
Like a dog with a bone means stubborn and tenacious; persistent; relentless; dogged.
What part of speech is like a dog with a bone?
Like a dog with a bone is an adjective.

Words near like a dog with a bone in the dictionary

  1. like a cow pissing on a flat rock
  2. like a demon
  3. like a dog after a bone
  4. like a dog in heat
  5. like a dog on heat
  6. like a dog with a bone
  7. like a dog with two dicks
  8. like a dog with two tails
  9. like a dose of salts
  10. like a dream
  11. like a drowned rat

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: like a dog with a bone (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-like a dog with a bone.ogg.

Cite this entry: “like a dog with a bone.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/like_a_dog_with_a_bone. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.