Word of the Day

: June 10, 2008

bird-dog

verb BURD-dog

What It Means

1 : to watch closely

2 : to seek out : follow, detect

bird-dog in Context

Scores of college recruiters bird-dogged the 7-foot high school senior for their basketball programs.

Did You Know?

People began using "bird-dog" as a verb meaning "to closely watch someone or something" or "to doggedly seek out someone or something" in the early 20th century. Both meanings reflect skills likely to be possessed by a well-trained bird dog. By the 1940s, "bird-dogging" was being used specifically as a term for stealing someone else's date. And, not long after that, it began to be used for the scouting out of customers or prospective talent. The noun "bird dog" is also used as a name for the date stealers and scouts who do the bird-dogging.