dog's life

English

Noun

dog's life (plural dogs' lives)

1. (idiomatic) A miserable, unhappy existence.
2. (idiomatic) A life of indolence where the individual may do as he or she pleases, just like a pampered dog.

Usage notes

Originally the term referred to the hard life of the working dog: sleeping in a damp barn, chasing rats and other intruders, living on scraps, etc. Today, however, it has in some circles acquired the completely opposite connotation indicated in sense 2.

Translations

miserable life

• Finnish: koiranelämä (fi)
• German: Hundeleben (de) n

• Russian: соба́чья жизнь (ru) (sobáčja žizn’) f

pampered life

• Finnish: kissanpäivät (fi) pl

The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables, removing any numbers. Numbers do not necessarily match those in definitions. See instructions at Help:How to check translations.

Translations to be checked

• Dutch: hondenleven (nl) n
• Greek: σκυλοζωή (scilozoí) f, σκυλίσια ζωή (scilísça zoí) f

• Spanish: vida de perros (es) f
• Vietnamese: số chó

External links

• article on it's a dog's life at World Wide Words