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.
The pair had remained doggedly together, as she had said: "We're divorced to each other, not from each other."
From BBC • Feb. 4, 2026
She then stunned centre court by breaking Sabalenka's serve to reduce the deficit to 5-2, and doggedly held her own serve for 5-3.
From Barron's • Jan. 21, 2026
But it remains surprising that its members continue to stick doggedly to their story in the face of unambiguous video evidence contradicting it.
From Slate • Jan. 15, 2026
Still, the index remains doggedly downbeat as Europeans continue to give priority to saving over spending.
From The Wall Street Journal • Dec. 4, 2025
Over a period of several years I doggedly sifted through the scientific literature, hoping to find a clue that would explain this conundrum.
From "Into the Wild" by Jon Krakauer
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.
