kangaroo dog

English

Noun

kangaroo dog (plural kangaroo dogs)

1. (Australia) A dog used to hunt kangaroos; (specifically), a breed of dog for this purpose, developed in Australia from the Scottish deerhound and the greyhound. [from 19th c.]
   • 1861, Horace William Wheelwright, Bush Wanderings of a Naturalist:

     A good dog of this kind is valuable; but we meet with so many cross-bred mongrels, that half the dogs which are called kangaroo-hounds are hardly worth their keep; and I do think a lazy, half-starved, good-for-nothing kangaroo-dog is the biggest loafer one can see about a tent.

   • 1986, Bruce Pascoe, ‘The Slaughters of the Bulumwaal Butcher’, in Heiss & Minter (eds.), Macquarie PEN Anthology of Aboriginal Literature, Allen & Unwin 2008, p. 103:

     He was as concerned as a rabbit when it is cornered by a kangaroo dog.

Synonyms

• Australian greyhound

Translations

dog breed

• Finnish: kengurukoira, australianvinttikoira
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