6 Dog Idioms in English

Hi, this is Alex, and welcome to this lesson on dog idioms. So, you might have seen the

episode on cat idioms on www.engvid.com. Well, now we're going to turn to the opposite side

and talk about dogs. It's actually amazing how many different kinds of idioms there are

in the English language specifically related to animals. It's incredible. Okay? So, today

we're going to look at six idioms related to dogs, and these are fairly common. So,

you might hear these in movies, in conversation on the street. Okay? So, let's have a look

at them. So, if someone says, "It's a dog-eat-dog world," essentially it means that the world

is extremely difficult, where there is a lot of competition. So, a lot of fierce competition

where people will do anything to be successful even if it hurts someone. Okay? So, if you

have a friend basically who lost a promotion because someone else in the company got the

promotion first, maybe because... not because they were the best employee, but because they

knew the boss or something like that, you would just tell your friend, "Well, it's a

dog-eat-dog world, my friend. No matter what you do, someone is always going to try and

get ahead of you." Okay? So, just think of two dogs kind of fighting each other. Okay?

It's a dog-eat-dog world. It's a difficult world where people will do anything to get

ahead of you. Okay? If you're sick as a dog, this one is very, very simple. It just means

you are extremely ill. You are very sick. "Grandpa's in the hospital. He's sick as a

dog. He's very ill." Okay? "I had some bad food last night. I'm feeling sick as a dog."

"Sorry, boss. Can't come into work today. I'm sick as a dog. I'm very ill." Okay?

Every dog has its day. What does this mean? Well, essentially what it means is eventually

everyone gets a chance to be successful. Okay? So, maybe you've had a difficult time of things

or a difficult life. Someone might say, "Every dog has its day." One day, things will work

out for you. Okay? Let's say you're playing the lottery every day. You're always losing.

And your friend who thinks that one day you're going to win the lottery, he might say, "Just

keep playing. Every dog has its day. One day, you will be successful. You will get what

you want." Okay? It's a dog's life. Basically, all this means is that life is very difficult

and unpleasant. Okay? So, similar to dog-eat-dog world, but not exactly. This just means life

is hard, life is unpleasant. Let's see. What kind of example can we use for this? Okay.

It's a dog's life. "I got fired from my job today. It's a dog's life, man." Something

like that where it's just life is unpleasant, life is hard. It's a dog's life. Even though

I think I have a dog, and he has it pretty easy. So, he just has to eat and go for a

run every now and then. But, for some reason, we think dogs have hard lives. I don't know.

Okay. What about "top dog"? So, the word "top" means, obviously, way up here, high. So, the

top dog, essentially, what it means is the head or the person with the most power, okay,

usually in a company or in a given situation. You can say, "Bill Gates? Yeah, he's the top

dog at Microsoft." Okay? He is the chief, you know, at the very top of the management.

Okay? So, if you're talking about, let's say, sports stars or something like that, you can

say, "He's top dog on his team. He's the best player on his team." Someone who is the best

in a particular category is the top dog, the best at something. Okay? So, you can't teach

an old dog new tricks. So, if we read this, it's actually not too difficult to understand.

What it means is, when someone has been doing something for a very long time, and they've

always been doing it the same way, it's very difficult for them to change that behavior

or to change their actions or their beliefs. Okay? So, let's say your dad has always walked

to work and it takes half an hour to get to work. Okay? And you tell your dad, "Dad, we

just got a new bus stop installed, you know, by the city close to our home. Take the bus

to work." But your dad is very stubborn. He's always walked to work. It takes 30 minutes.

He complains about it, but he doesn't care. He does not want to take the bus. So, he would

just say, "Dad, oh, dad, we can't teach him any new tricks." So, we would just say, if

you're talking to like your brother or your sister, and they say, "Dad refuses to take

the bus." Well, you can't teach an old dog new tricks. Okay? So, let's review these one

more time. So, again, a dog-eat-dog world means it is a very fierce and competitive

world where people will do anything to get ahead. So, this is more, you make a comment

about a difficult situation where someone has been treated unfairly. If you're sick

as a dog, you're very ill, so you'll be talking about yourself or someone else. If you say,

"Every dog has its day," it means that regardless of how difficult things are today, one day

things will go right. Things will be good. It's a dog's life. It's a hard, unpleasant,

cruel life. "Top dog" means the top person in a particular category, and you can't teach

an old dog new tricks. It just means it's very difficult for a person to change their

habits and behaviors if they've been doing them in one particular way almost all of their

lives. Okay. So, if you're sick as a dog of listening to me, you can go to www.engvid.com

and check out the quiz on this where you can test your knowledge of these idioms. Okay?

Once again, my name is Alex. Take care.