dog-eared
/ˈdɔɡˌɪ(ə)ɹd/
Word Rarity
Rare
Frequency: 2.84 in modern English
11
Scrabble Score
8
Letters
2
Syllables
6
Unique Chars
Meaning
adj
Of a page in a book or other publication: having its corner folded down, either due to having been read many times, or intentionally as a sort of bookmark.
Example Sentences
- "By thumbing to the dog-eared pages, she quickly found the items in the catalog she wanted to order."
- "The pages in his favourite book were dog-eared from years of reading it at bedtime."
- "There was the huge Italian cassone, with its fantastically painted panels and its tarnished gilt mouldings, in which he had so often hidden himself as a boy. There the satinwood book-case filled with his dog-eared schoolbooks."
- "To the uninitiated it may seem strange to behold a Harvard graduate stuck down day after day poring over a pile of dog-eared school-books— third arithmetics, primary grammars, beginners' histories of Tennessee, of the United States, of England; physiology, hygiene. It may seem queer. But when it comes to standing a Wayne County teacher's examination, the specific answers to the specific questions on a dozen old examination slips are worth all the degrees Harvard ever did confer."
- "Dog-eared tomes litter his sitting room, filled with lovely names – Sailor, Scandal, Saucebox, Starlight, Siren, to take a few from a random page of the directory for 1875."
- "This is the old, old pain come home once more, Bent down with answers wild and very lame For all my delving in old dog-eared lore That drove the Sages mad. And boots the world Aught for their wisdom?"
Etymology
From dog + eared (“having ears (of a specified type)”), modelled after dog’s-ear (obsolete), due to the similarity of their appearance to the folded ears of certain dogs. The word is analysable as dog-ear (“to fold the corner of a book’s page”) + -ed (suffix forming possessional adjectives) (dog-ear is attested in print later than dog-eared).
Word Breakdown
Regional Pronunciation
- American English: /ˈdɔɡˌɪ(ə)ɹd/
- British English: /ˈdɒɡɪəd/
Inflected Forms
more dog-eared (comparative)
most dog-eared (superlative)
dogeared (alternative)
dog eared (alternative)
dog's-eared (alternative)