"see a man about a dog" meaning in All languages combined

See see a man about a dog on Wiktionary

Verb [English]

Audio: En-au-see a man about a dog.ogg Forms: sees a man about a dog [present, singular, third-person], seeing a man about a dog [participle, present], saw a man about a dog [past], seen a man about a dog [participle, past]
Etymology: Unknown. As a Prohibition-era reference to getting alcohol, influenced by the expression hair of the dog. Etymology templates: {{unknown|en}} Unknown Head templates: {{en-verb|see<,,saw,seen> a man about a dog}} see a man about a dog (third-person singular simple present sees a man about a dog, present participle seeing a man about a dog, simple past saw a man about a dog, past participle seen a man about a dog)
  1. (idiomatic, dated) Used in place of a real explanation when excusing oneself for a short period of time, particularly (euphemistic) to use the toilet or (historical) drink alcohol. Wikipedia link: see a man about a dog Tags: dated, idiomatic Categories (topical): Bodily functions Synonyms: use the toilet, urinate, and Thesaurus:defecate Synonyms (all senses): a man, a man about a horse Synonyms (use the toilet): a man about the plumbing
    Sense id: en-see_a_man_about_a_dog-en-verb-JNFyVZUh Categories (other): English entries with incorrect language header, English euphemisms, English predicates, Pages with 1 entry, Pages with entries
     
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      "sense": "all senses",
      "word": "a man"
    },
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      "sense": "all senses",
      "word": "a man about a horse"
    },
    {
      "sense": "use the toilet",
      "word": "a man about the plumbing"
    },
    {
      "word": "use the toilet"
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    {
      "word": "urinate"
    },
    {
      "word": "and Thesaurus:defecate"
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This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable All languages combined dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2024-11-06 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2024-10-02 using wiktextract (fbeafe8 and 7f03c9b). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.

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