junkyard dog

English

Noun

junkyard dog (plural junkyard dogs)

1. (literally) An aggressive dog which guards a scrapyard or junkyard.
2. (idiomatic, by extension, hyphenated when used attributively) An animal or person with an especially nasty and combative demeanor.
   • 1992, Janice Castro, "With Friends Like These ...," Time, 21 Sept.:

     House minority whip . . . Gingrich has earned enmity in abundance for his junkyard-dog tactics.

   • 2004, Peter Maravelis, San Francisco Noir, ISBN 9781888451917, p. 50:

     "I'm gonna hire me a lawyer," he said. "A real junkyard dog."

Translations

An animal or person with an especially nasty and combative demeanor

• French: chien de la casse (fr) m

References

• junkyard dog at OneLook Dictionary Search