Word.ws English Dictionary

like strange bulldogs

like strange bulldogs phrase: wary and unfriendly; on the verge of a fight.

Phrase

like strange bulldogs

  1. (dated, simile) Wary and unfriendly; on the verge of a fight.
    • When I think of those folks, living in one room and getting along like a couple of strange bulldogs, I feel like stringing with the man who says that we get our hell on this earth sometimes.1916 March 11, Charles E. Van Loan, “His Folks”, in Saturday Evening Post
    • "Some disagreement," admitted Harmon, grinning. "These up-State farmers and I love each other like a couple of strange bulldogs. Still—"1918, Holworthy Hall, The Man Nobody Knew

Origin of like strange bulldogs

strange is used with the sense of unfamiliar, unacquainted.

Questions about like strange bulldogs

What does like strange bulldogs mean?
Like strange bulldogs means wary and unfriendly; on the verge of a fight.
What part of speech is like strange bulldogs?
Like strange bulldogs is a phrase.

Words near like strange bulldogs in the dictionary

  1. like someone owns the place
  2. like speaking to a brick wall
  3. like speaking to a wall
  4. like stink
  5. like stink on shit
  6. like strange bulldogs
  7. like taking candy from a baby
  8. like talking to a brick wall
  9. like talking to a wall
  10. like terms
  11. like that

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: like strange bulldogs (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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