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prairie dog

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prairie dog noun: any member of the genus Cynomys, small, stout-bodied burrowing rodents with shallow cheek pouches, native to North America and Central America.

prairie dog: any member of the genus Cynomys, small, stout-bodied burrowing rodents with shallow cheek pouches,...
Image: Ron Singer, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Noun

prairie dog (plural prairie dogs)

  1. Any member of the genus Cynomys, small, stout-bodied burrowing rodents with shallow cheek pouches, native to North America and Central America.
    Synonyms:
    sod poodle

Verb

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

  1. (ambitransitive, idiomatic) To pop up from a hole or analogous orifice in a manner that resembles the way a prairie dog pops its head up from its burrow.
    • Near-synonym: emerge
    • People prairie-dog over the tops of their cubicles and call to their co-workers: “Hey, you going for a walk at lunch today?”2017, Kory Stamper, Word By Word, Vintage, published 2018, page 11
  2. (ambitransitive, broadly, euphemistic, idiomatic, slang, vulgar) To struggle to hold back an imminent bowel movement.
    • Kimberly: [needs to go to the bathroom] Dad, I'm prairie dogging it!
      Dad: What the hell does that mean?
      Jason: You know, like when a prairie dog sticks his head in and out of the ground.
      […] Dad: Ohh, god, I do not wanna picture that!2001, Andy Breckman, directed by Jerry Zucker, Rat Race, Jillian Marie (Kimberly Pear), Jon Lovitz (Randy Pear, “Dad”), and Brody Smith (Jason Pear) (actors)
    • I'm about to crap my pants.
      Je vais me faire au froc.
      I'm prairie-dogging it.
      J'ai le cigare au bout des lèvres.
      Literally, “the cigar is at the edge of my lips”.2008, Adrien Clautrier with Rowe, Henry and Mack, Lindsay, Dirty French: Everyday Slang from "What's Up?" to "F*%# Off!", Berkeley: Ulysses Press, →ISBN, →LCCN, page 54

prairie dog meaning in Tamil and Malay

prairie dog in Tamil

இதுவும் ஒரு சிற்றினம் ஆகும்

prairie dog in Malay

burrowing rodent
anjing prairi

Synonyms of prairie dog

All synonyms of prairie dog

Forms of prairie dog

Noun
pluralprairie dogs
Verb
third-person singular presentprairie dogs
present participleprairie dogging
past participleprairie dogged
pastprairie dogged
alternative formprairie-dog

Origin of prairie dog

From prairie + dog, after their yelping alarm calls.

By analogy with the animal's unburrowing behavior.

Questions about prairie dog

What does prairie dog mean?
Prairie dog means any member of the genus Cynomys, small, stout-bodied burrowing rodents with shallow cheek pouches, native to North America and Central America.
What is prairie dog in Tamil?
Prairie dog in Tamil is இதுவும் ஒரு சிற்றினம் ஆகும். See Prairie dog meaning in Tamil.
What part of speech is prairie dog?
Prairie dog can be a noun or a verb.
What is the plural of prairie dog?
The plural of prairie dog is prairie dogs.

Words near prairie dog in the dictionary

  1. prairie crabapples
  2. Prairie Creek
  3. prairie crocus
  4. prairie dock
  5. prairie docks
  6. prairie dog
  7. prairie dogged
  8. prairie dogging
  9. prairie doggings
  10. prairie dogs
  11. Prairie du Chien

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: prairie dog (page history and authors); prairie dog (Tamil 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-us-ncalif-prairiedogging.ogg, LL-Q1860 (eng)-Neøn-prairie dog.wav.

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