Word.ws English Dictionary

the dog ate my homework

the dog ate my homework phrase: a stereotypical unconvincing excuse for not completing school homework or (by extension) not meeting one's obligations.

Phrase

the dog ate my homework

  1. (also, attributive) A stereotypical unconvincing excuse for not completing school homework or (by extension) not meeting one's obligations.
    • Their reasons for missed deadlines are mostly of the "dog ate my homework variety" including such easily foreseeable events as yesterday's elections and that the badger culling policy is "difficult and sensitive".2011 May 6, Damian Carrington, “Environment action delays blamed on 'dog ate my homework' excuses”, in Alan Rusbridger, editor, The Guardian, London: Guardian News & Media, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived...
    • The government's excuses for Diego Garcia's missing records are getting increasingly confused and desperate. Ministers could hardly be less credible if they simply said 'the dog ate my homework.'2014 September 12, Oscar Webb, quoting Donald Campbell, “UK Government Changes Its Line On Diego Garcia Flight Logs Sought in Rendition Row - Again”, in Vice News, archived from the original on 05...

Forms of the dog ate my homework

alternative formmy dog ate my homework

Questions about the dog ate my homework

What does the dog ate my homework mean?
The dog ate my homework means a stereotypical unconvincing excuse for not completing school homework or (by extension) not meeting one's obligations.
What part of speech is the dog ate my homework?
The dog ate my homework is a phrase.

Words near the dog ate my homework in the dictionary

  1. the dickens
  2. the dickens out of
  3. the dickens you say
  4. the die is cast
  5. The Ditch
  6. the dog ate my homework
  7. the dogs bark, but the caravan goes on
  8. the dogs bark, but the caravan moves on
  9. the dollar bean
  10. The Donald
  11. the dose makes the poison

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: the dog ate my homework (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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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-the dog ate my homework.wav.

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