Word.ws English Dictionary

trying it on the dog

trying it on the dog is the present participle and gerund of try it on the dog.

Meaning of try it on the dog

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

Questions about trying it on the dog

What is trying it on the dog the present participle and gerund of?
Trying it on the dog is the present participle and gerund of try it on the dog.

Words near trying it on the dog in the dictionary

  1. tryina
  2. trying
  3. trying conclusions
  4. trying for size
  5. trying it on
  6. trying it on the dog
  7. trying it out on the dog
  8. trying on
  9. trying on for size
  10. trying one's hand
  11. trying one's luck

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: trying it on the dog (page history and authors); 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: “trying it on the dog.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/trying_it_on_the_dog. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.