Word.ws English Dictionary

How to use spaniel in a sentence

18 example sentences · noun, verb

Spaniel means any of various small to medium-sized breeds of gun dog having a broad muzzle, long, wavy fur and long ears that hang at the side of the head, bred for flushing and retrieving game. Example: “It was sad to put our beloved spaniel to sleep, but it was better than letting him suffer.”

Examples of spaniel by meaning

verbTo follow loyally or obsequiously, like a spaniel.

  • J. Sedgewick (1840), Timon, but not of Athens, page 200: “Always spanielling at the heels of power, the mitred Dignitaries displayed, from first to last, the most rancorous hostility against her.”
  • David S. Bell (2000), Presidential Power in Fifth Republic France, →ISBN, page 30: “Hence Duverger's famous question about de Gaulle's first spanielling Prime Minister makes political ('M. Debré, existe-t-il?'), but not constitutional sense.”

More sentences with spaniel

  • It was sad to put our beloved spaniel to sleep, but it was better than letting him suffer.From the entry put to sleep
  • She has a spaniel and a red setter.From the entry setter
  • In this discussion, we will lump together various breeds of spaniels, because the differences among them don't matter for our practical purposes here.From the entry lump together
  • One was to scrape the violin, the other to train spaniels for hunting.2010 January 5, Leslie Carroll, Notorious Royal Marriages: A Juicy Journey Through Nine Centuries of Dynasty, Destiny, and Desire…. From the entry scrape
  • They became shorthand for English style, like Staffordshire spaniels minus the tweeness.2009 March 13, Christopher Petkanas, “Blade Runner”, in New York Times. From the entry tweeness
  • I probably would have gone with a spaniel rather than a setter.2003 October 21, queenmother, “Recommended Dog Breeds”, in rec.pets.dogs.breeds (Usenet). From the entry high-strung
  • A catman, on the other hand, is made slightly uncomfortable by spaniel eyes and devoted tail thumpings.1968, John Montgomery, “Are You a Catman?”, in The World of Cats, London; New York, N.Y.: Hamlyn Publishing Group, published 1970, →ISBN…. From the entry dogman
  • The Javanee is like the spaniel in his fondness for water.1905, Outing, volume 46, page 312. From the entry Javanee
  • It made me think of my springer spaniel, Effie.1998, Travis Roy with E[dward] M[cKelvy] Swift, Eleven Seconds: A Story of Tragedy, Courage, and Triumph, New York, N.Y.: Warner Books…. From the entry some body
  • The labs and golden retrievers replaced the Irish spaniel.1963 November 23, Ducky Stewart, “Hunters’ tastes have streamlined”, in Wilmington Morning News, volume 164, number 126, Wilmington, Del.…. From the entry ruggy
  • He was a swack billy-boy, with the same high color as the landlord, and the same tight spaniel curls.1953, Edward Ballard Garside, The Man from Brazil, page 162. From the entry swack
  • Sometimes people mistook Daisy for a spaniel, but you could tell she was a luck dragon because she had big floppy ears.2009 March 1, Sam Bowring, The Zoo of Magical and Mythological Creatures, Macmillan, preface. From the entry luck dragon
  • Steffi is a tricolor King Charles spaniel, an archetypal lap dog and love sponge, barely a foot high and no more than 10 pounds.2007 December 1, Harry Hurt III, “Proof That Overscheduled Modern Life Isn’t Fit for a Dog”, in New York Times, retrieved 05 Dec 2011. From the entry lap dog
  • Adam gave her—the spaniel, not Mrs.1930, Evelyn Waugh, chapter V, in Vile Bodies, New York: Back Bay Books, published 1999. From the entry cordiality
  • On the other hand, the Englishman has the satisfaction of Billingsgating to his heart's content the highest officials: they accept objurgation with spaniel fawning.1905, Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, volume 177, page 99. From the entry billingsgate
  • They moved into a shed outside my bedroom window, with bunk beds and a dangerous paraffin heater and two stinky spaniels with cornflakey eyes . . .2004 May 6, Linda Smith, “‘Wrap Up Warm’ Tour”, in Warren Lakin, Ian Parsons, compilers, The Very Best of Linda Smith, London: Hodder &…. From the entry cornflakey

Meaning of spaniel

  1. noun Any of various small to medium-sized breeds of gun dog having a broad muzzle, long, wavy fur and long ears that hang at the side of the head, bred for flushing and retrieving game.
  2. noun A cringing, fawning person.
  3. verb To follow loyally or obsequiously, like a spaniel.

Full definition of spaniel

Questions about spaniel in a sentence

How do you use spaniel in a sentence?
Spaniel is used as a noun and verb. For example: “It was sad to put our beloved spaniel to sleep, but it was better than letting him suffer.”
What is a short sentence with spaniel?
“Adam gave her—the spaniel, not Mrs.”
What does spaniel mean?
Spaniel means any of various small to medium-sized breeds of gun dog having a broad muzzle, long, wavy fur and long ears that hang at the side of the head, bred for flushing and retrieving game.

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: spaniel (page history and authors) and the entries each sentence comes from. Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws chose the sentences, left out offensive ones and quotations older than 1900, and marked the word in each. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this page: “How to use spaniel in a sentence.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/sentences/spaniel. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.