Spaniel
['spænj(ə)l] or ['spænjəl]
Definition
(noun.) any of several breeds of small to medium-sized gun dogs with a long silky coat and long frilled ears.
Typed by Eliza--From WordNet
Definition
(n.) One of a breed of small dogs having long and thick hair and large drooping ears. The legs are usually strongly feathered, and the tail bushy. See Illust. under Clumber, and Cocker.
(n.) A cringing, fawning person.
(a.) Cringing; fawning.
(v. i.) To fawn; to cringe; to be obsequious.
(v. t.) To follow like a spaniel.
Editor: Susanna
Definition
n. a kind of dog usually liver-and-white coloured or black-and-white with large pendent ears.—adj. (Shak.) like a spaniel fawning mean.—n. Span′ielship obsequious attention.—Blenheim Spaniel red-and-white established by the Duke of Marlborough; Clumber Spaniel handsome lemon-and-white short in leg long in body with a coat like a setter and massive head with large drooping ears; King Charles spaniel black-and-tan first brought into notice by Charles II.; Sussex spaniel like the Clumber golden-liver or brown.
Edited by Bryan
Examples
- An etching of a child playing with a Blenheim spaniel happened to flutter to the floor. Charlotte Bronte. Villette.
- Some highly competent authorities are convinced that the setter is directly derived from the spaniel, and has probably been slowly altered from it. Charles Darwin. On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection.
- I will not suffer like a spaniel! Mary Shelley. The Last Man.
- He looked at me and the spaniel while we shared the spoil; he put up his penknife. Charlotte Bronte. Villette.
- You are no higher than a spaniel, and had better go back to the people who did worse than whip you. Charles Dickens. Little Dorrit.
- While caressing the spaniel, his eye roved over the papers and books just replaced; it settled on the religious tract. Charlotte Bronte. Villette.
- There, crouched up in the farthest corner, lay the forlorn cause of my terror, in the shape of a poor little dog--a black and white spaniel. Wilkie Collins. The Woman in White.
- Half of Briggs's time at dinner was spent in superintending the invalid's comfort, and in cutting up chicken for her fat spaniel. William Makepeace Thackeray. Vanity Fair.
- There is reason to believe that King Charles' spaniel has been unconsciously modified to a large extent since the time of that monarch. Charles Darwin. On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection.
Editor: Margie