dog in the manger

American  

[dawg in thuh meyn-jer, dog] / ˈdɔg ɪn ðə ˈmeɪn dʒər, ˈdɒg /

noun

1. a person who selfishly keeps something that they do not really need or want so that others may not use or enjoy it.

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dog in the manger British  

noun

1. 1. a person who prevents others from using something he has no use for

   2. ( as modifier )

      a dog-in-the-manger attitude

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dog in the manger Cultural  

1. A person who spitefully refuses to let someone else benefit from something for which he or she has no personal use: “We asked our neighbor for the fence posts he had left over, but, like a dog in the manger, he threw them out rather than give them to us.” The phrase comes from one of Aesop's fables, about a dog lying in a manger full of hay. When an ox tries to eat some hay, the dog bites him, despite the fact that the hay is of no use to the dog.

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dog in the manger Idioms  

1. One who prevents others from enjoying something despite having no use for it. For example, Why be a dog in the manger? If you aren't going to use those tickets, let someone else have them. This expression alludes to Aesop's fable about a snarling dog that prevents horses from eating fodder that is unpalatable to the dog itself. [Mid-1500s]

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Other Word Forms

• dog-in-the-manger
  adjective

Etymology

Origin of dog in the manger

First recorded in 1555–65

Example Sentences

It seemed like every time I ran into Gary he said he was about to quit, but he didn’t quit—playing dog in the manger, in my exasperated view.

From The New Yorker • Sep. 2, 2018

Like Aesop's fabled dog in the manger, Tennessee's paunchy, vituperative Senator Kenneth McKellar championed the land and the people; he wanted no improvements without patronage.

From Time Magazine Archive

I very much fear that if we fail to push a broad, vigorous program in this field, we will be accused of following a "dog in the manger" policy.

From Time Magazine Archive

I haven't tried to be a dog in the manger.

From Time Magazine Archive

What does it care, this dog in the manger?

From Thirty Years in Australia by Cambridge, Ada