doggedly
Americanadverb
Etymology
Origin of doggedly
Explanation
The adverb doggedly means "tenaciously" or "with strong determination." If your dog ran away, you might doggedly pursue him across the park, down the road, and through the woods. Doggedly is the adverb form of the adjective dogged. In the 1300s, both words meant having the negative qualities of a dog, or mean and cruel. By the late 1700s, both had evolved to mean "persistent" and "with determination." If you doggedly insisted on your innocence, despite the evidence linking you to your brother's missing baseball mitt, you might then search doggedly for the mitt, not stopping until you found it in the dog house.
Vocabulary lists containing doggedly
The Outsiders
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A Raisin in the Sun
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"The Most Dangerous Game" by Richard Connell
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
"She saw the light at the end of the tunnel and followed it doggedly," he said.
From BBC ● Sep. 30, 2026
Truman held doggedly to Roosevelt’s demand for unconditional surrender as the atomic bomb test lighted up the New Mexico sky.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 31, 2026
Scrum after scrum failed to gain Glasgow the momentum they needed in the closing stages and the visitors doggedly saw out the narrowest of victories.
From BBC ● Jun. 6, 2026
But nobody in all of college basketball has pursued that trend as doggedly as Underwood.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Mar. 25, 2026
Baachan and Mama stood up to watch, but Jiichan doggedly worked.
From "A Place to Belong" by Cynthia Kadohata
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
