Word.ws English Dictionary

try it on the dog

try it on the dog verb: to try something (especially a theatrical play) on a less important audience to gauge the likelihood of success before committing to general release or approval.

Verb

try it on the dog (third-person singular simple present tries it on the dog, present participle trying it on the dog, simple past and past participle tried it on the dog)

  1. (colloquial) To try something (especially a theatrical play) on a less important audience to gauge the likelihood of success before committing to general release or approval.
    • They had feared to make the venture with it at the California theatre in San Francisco where they had been favorites, so they brought it to Salt Lake to "try it on the dog."1905, John Shanks Lindsay, The Mormons and the Theatre, page 129

Forms of try it on the dog

third-person singular presenttries it on the dog
present participletrying it on the dog
past participletried it on the dog
pasttried it on the dog
alternative formtry it out on the dog

Questions about try it on the dog

What does try it on the dog mean?
Try it on the dog means to try something (especially a theatrical play) on a less important audience to gauge the likelihood of success before committing to general release or approval.
What part of speech is try it on the dog?
Try it on the dog is a verb.
What is the past tense of try it on the dog?
The past tense of try it on the dog is tried it on the dog.

Words near try it on the dog in the dictionary

  1. try conclusions
  2. try for size
  3. try house
  4. try houses
  5. try it on
  6. try it on the dog
  7. try it out on the dog
  8. try line
  9. try lines
  10. try me
  11. try on

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: try it on the dog (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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Cite this entry: “try it on the dog.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/try_it_on_the_dog. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.