Word.ws English Dictionary

walking the dog

walking the dog is the present participle and gerund of walk the dog.

Meaning of walk the dog

Verb

walk the dog (third-person singular simple present walks the dog, present participle walking the dog, simple past and past participle walked the dog)

  1. To take a dog for a walk, so as to give it exercise.
  2. (idiomatic) To perform a trick where the yo-yo rolls on the ground, attached to the string.
  3. (idiomatic) To perform a trick where the ball rolls down the shaft and is caught in the head of the lacrosse stick.
  4. (euphemistic) To go to the pub.
  5. To inbound the ball by rolling it on the ground in order to take time off the game clock (usually because one has a big lead) and/or delay the start of the 24-second shot clock (and so maximize the possession).
    • The tactic has recently exploded, and Paul, for one, appreciates his younger peers who walk the dog to waste the game clock -- and he gets a kick out of those who don't understand them.2023 January 25, ESPN

Noun

walking the dog

  1. Any of various dances, or dance moves, that mimic dog walking.
    • The tango, the Texas Tommy, Walking the Dog, the one step, the fox trot, the shimmy, and all their out-growths, had their origin in the palaces of lust on the Barbary Coast of San Francisco.1930, Jefferis & Nichols, Safe Counsel or Practical Eugenics, page 200
    1. A specific set step in clogging.

Questions about walking the dog

What does walking the dog mean?
Walking the dog means any of various dances, or dance moves, that mimic dog walking.
What is walking the dog the present participle and gerund of?
Walking the dog is the present participle and gerund of walk the dog.
What part of speech is walking the dog?
Walking the dog is a noun.

Words near walking the dog in the dictionary

  1. walking the boards
  2. walking the cat back
  3. walking the chalk
  4. walking the chalk line
  5. walking the chalk mark
  6. walking the dog
  7. walking the floor
  8. walking the gangplank
  9. walking the hospitals
  10. walking the line
  11. walking the plank

Source and license

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