"dog town" meaning in English

See dog town in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Noun

Forms: dog towns [plural]
Etymology: (theatrical): See try it on the dog. Etymology templates: {{sense|theatrical}} (theatrical):, {{m|en|try it on the dog}} try it on the dog Head templates: {{en-noun}} dog town (plural dog towns)
  1. A community of prairie dogs.
    Sense id: en-dog_town-en-noun-vSHQNbTU
  2. (theater, colloquial) A town at which a play is performed for a less important audience to gauge the likelihood of general success. Tags: colloquial Categories (topical): Theater Synonyms: dogtown
    Sense id: en-dog_town-en-noun-yYEGkTEv Topics: entertainment, lifestyle, theater

Inflected forms

Alternative forms

Download JSON data for dog town meaning in English (2.1kB)

{
  "etymology_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "theatrical"
      },
      "expansion": "(theatrical):",
      "name": "sense"
    },
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "try it on the dog"
      },
      "expansion": "try it on the dog",
      "name": "m"
    }
  ],
  "etymology_text": "(theatrical): See try it on the dog.",
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "dog towns",
      "tags": [
        "plural"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {},
      "expansion": "dog town (plural dog towns)",
      "name": "en-noun"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "noun",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "2004, Nora Bowers, Rick Bowers, Kenn Kaufmann, Mammals of North America, page 118",
          "text": "This ferret feeds on prairie dogs and lives in their abandoned burrows; although it will feed on other small prey, it never thrives away from the dogtowns.",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "A community of prairie dogs."
      ],
      "id": "en-dog_town-en-noun-vSHQNbTU",
      "links": [
        [
          "community",
          "community"
        ],
        [
          "prairie dog",
          "prairie dog"
        ]
      ]
    },
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "kind": "topical",
          "langcode": "en",
          "name": "Theater",
          "orig": "en:Theater",
          "parents": [
            "Art",
            "Entertainment",
            "Culture",
            "Society",
            "All topics",
            "Fundamental"
          ],
          "source": "w"
        }
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "1917, W. J. Thorold, Arthur Hornblow, Perriton Maxwell, Theatre Magazine, volume 25, page 42",
          "text": "He's rehearsing his first-born for a dog-town opening next week.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1923, The Drama, volumes 14-15, page 91",
          "text": "And speaking of Mr. Sloan, I note that he believes Chicago is taking New Haven's place as a dog-town.",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "A town at which a play is performed for a less important audience to gauge the likelihood of general success."
      ],
      "id": "en-dog_town-en-noun-yYEGkTEv",
      "links": [
        [
          "theater",
          "theater"
        ],
        [
          "play",
          "play"
        ],
        [
          "perform",
          "perform"
        ],
        [
          "important",
          "important"
        ],
        [
          "audience",
          "audience"
        ],
        [
          "likelihood",
          "likelihood"
        ],
        [
          "success",
          "success"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(theater, colloquial) A town at which a play is performed for a less important audience to gauge the likelihood of general success."
      ],
      "synonyms": [
        {
          "_dis1": "35 65",
          "word": "dogtown"
        }
      ],
      "tags": [
        "colloquial"
      ],
      "topics": [
        "entertainment",
        "lifestyle",
        "theater"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "dog town"
}
{
  "etymology_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "theatrical"
      },
      "expansion": "(theatrical):",
      "name": "sense"
    },
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "try it on the dog"
      },
      "expansion": "try it on the dog",
      "name": "m"
    }
  ],
  "etymology_text": "(theatrical): See try it on the dog.",
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "dog towns",
      "tags": [
        "plural"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {},
      "expansion": "dog town (plural dog towns)",
      "name": "en-noun"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "noun",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        "English terms with quotations",
        "Quotation templates to be cleaned"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "2004, Nora Bowers, Rick Bowers, Kenn Kaufmann, Mammals of North America, page 118",
          "text": "This ferret feeds on prairie dogs and lives in their abandoned burrows; although it will feed on other small prey, it never thrives away from the dogtowns.",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "A community of prairie dogs."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "community",
          "community"
        ],
        [
          "prairie dog",
          "prairie dog"
        ]
      ]
    },
    {
      "categories": [
        "English colloquialisms",
        "English terms with quotations",
        "Quotation templates to be cleaned",
        "en:Theater"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "1917, W. J. Thorold, Arthur Hornblow, Perriton Maxwell, Theatre Magazine, volume 25, page 42",
          "text": "He's rehearsing his first-born for a dog-town opening next week.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1923, The Drama, volumes 14-15, page 91",
          "text": "And speaking of Mr. Sloan, I note that he believes Chicago is taking New Haven's place as a dog-town.",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "A town at which a play is performed for a less important audience to gauge the likelihood of general success."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "theater",
          "theater"
        ],
        [
          "play",
          "play"
        ],
        [
          "perform",
          "perform"
        ],
        [
          "important",
          "important"
        ],
        [
          "audience",
          "audience"
        ],
        [
          "likelihood",
          "likelihood"
        ],
        [
          "success",
          "success"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(theater, colloquial) A town at which a play is performed for a less important audience to gauge the likelihood of general success."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "colloquial"
      ],
      "topics": [
        "entertainment",
        "lifestyle",
        "theater"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "synonyms": [
    {
      "word": "dogtown"
    }
  ],
  "word": "dog town"
}

This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2024-03-12 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2024-03-01 using wiktextract (68773ab and 5f6ddbb). 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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