Word.ws English Dictionary

yellow dog

yellow dog noun: used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see yellow, dog. Also the ellipsis of Yellow Dog Democrat.

Noun (1)

yellow dog (plural yellow dogs)

  1. Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see yellow, dog.
  2. (Southern US, US, especially) A Carolina dog.
  3. (US, informal) An item or person of low value.
    • If I had a woman like that I'd trade her off for a yellow dog and then shoot the dog.1877, Charles White with Andrew J. Leavitt, The coming man: an Ethiopian sketch in two scenes, page 5
    • A respectable class of candidates for minor state offices, and for state senate and assembly, at this moment desire to run on the ticket with Roosevelt. As soon as there is a third ticket in the field no one but a yellow dog will consent to run on Platt's ticket.1897, John Jay Chapman, editor, The Political nursery, volumes 1:10 - 4:10

Noun (2) capitalized: Yellow Dog

Yellow Dog (plural Yellow Dogs)

  1. Alternative letter-case form of yellow dog, chiefly used when the word has the sense "Carolina dog" or the sense "Yellow Dog Democrat".

Also used as

yellow dog is also the ellipsis of Yellow Dog Democrat.

Forms of yellow dog

pluralyellow dogs
alternative formYellow Dog
alternative formyaller dog
alternative formyallar dog
pluralYellow Dogs

Origin of yellow dog

Carolina dogs were called yellow dogs because many had yellow coats. The fact that many mongrel dogs also had yellow coats lead to the term's application to any worthless item or person. For the etymology of the term Yellow Dog Democrat, see that entry.

Questions about yellow dog

What does yellow dog mean?
Yellow dog means used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see yellow, dog.
What part of speech is yellow dog?
Yellow dog is a noun.
What is the plural of yellow dog?
The plural of yellow dog is yellow dogs.

Words near yellow dog in the dictionary

  1. yellow crazy ants
  2. yellow cross liquid
  3. yellow cross liquids
  4. Yellow Dam
  5. yellow dock
  6. yellow dog
  7. yellow dog contract
  8. yellow dog contracts
  9. Yellow Dog Democrat
  10. Yellow Dog Democrats
  11. yellow dog fund

Source and license

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