doggone
Americanverb (used with object)
adjective
-
doggonest
superlative
adverb
interjection
adjective
Other Word Forms
Adjective Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of doggone
1850–55, perhaps from dog on it! euphemistic alteration of God damned
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.
See Examples For:
Let’s just say there’s a whole lot of doggone fun to have here.
From MarketWatch ● Oct. 29, 2025
This week’s Slate News Quiz is doggone good.
From Slate ● May 17, 2024
“Rome wasn’t built in a day, but they’re doing a doggone good job, which I’m very thankful for,” tight end Logan Thomas said.
From Washington Times ● Nov. 22, 2023
Nevertheless, Costner and his family “watched the whole doggone thing” and celebrated his win.
From Los Angeles Times ● Feb. 14, 2023
I looked up to see whose doggone hand was so doggone big and why they’d put it around my neck.
From "Bud, Not Buddy" by Christopher Paul Curtis
"My nevvy, Paddy, Peter, the doggonest young scamp an old sea-horse ever tried to raise," Rouse bellowed.
From The Argus Pheasant by Beecham, John Charles
This has been the doggonest Fourth of July I ever spent, and as a result I am in much trouble.
From Biltmore Oswald The Diary of a Hapless Recruit by Dorgan, Dick
Ain't dat de doggonest luck in de wide worl'!
From In the Arena Stories of Political Life by Tarkington, Booth
Brigadier General William L. Roberts, until recently head of the 500-man U.S. military mission in Korea, had called the Korean army "the best doggoned shooting army outside the United States."
From Time Magazine Archive
I’ll be doggoned if I ever saw such a thing as a fellow lettin’ another guy walk off with his wife—when he ain’t been married hardly two hours yet.
From The Fighting Edge by Raine, William MacLeod
Well, sir, I went to Chicago, and hung around that doggoned city fur a week 'r two; but no Lil.
From The Spiritualists and the Detectives by Pinkerton, Allan
She’s thar shore enough, ‘n’ it seems like he’s gwine to keep her; but I wouldn’t hev believed it ef I hadn’t seen it, doggoned ef I would!
From In Connection with the De Willoughby Claim by Burnett, Frances Hodgson
"We seen most five thousand hosses, an' I'll be doggoned if I don't believe we'll ketch them all."
From Valley of Wild Horses by Grey, Zane
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.
