dug
1 Americanverb
noun
noun
-
the nipple, teat, udder, or breast of a female mammal
-
a human breast, esp when old and withered
verb
noun
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of dug
1520–30; origin obscure; perhaps < a Germanic base akin to Danish dægge, Norwegian degge, Swedish dägga to suckle
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:
Aghast at the ways of men, he’s dug his own Circe-like fingers into Homer to manipulate the tale into a moralistic “Oppenheimer” prequel.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 15, 2026
Since Russia’s 2022 invasion, the conflict has settled into a grinding war of attrition, with both sides deeply dug in.
From Slate ● Jul. 10, 2026
The clay, most of which is dug from the Humber Estuary, arrives in heavy blocks and is stacked on pallets in the yard at William Blyth, in Barton-upon-Humber, North Lincolnshire.
From BBC ● Jul. 5, 2026
As I dug through historical documents—newspaper archives, foundation reports and budgets, a trove of his letters stashed in a museum—I wanted to know how Dorr became so passionate about such a peculiar cause.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 4, 2026
Christopher dug his fingers into the white mane, and with a chorus of whinnies the whole herd took off at a gallop into the forest.
From "Impossible Creatures" by Katherine Rundell
In the state of Arizona, prison boss Carson McWilliams was also on the search for lethal dugs.
From BBC ● Oct. 21, 2023
Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority, which has played a vital role in procuring experimental dugs and vaccines.
From Reuters ● Nov. 11, 2020
Around the last stall came a shepherd bitch, lean and long, with heavy, hanging dugs.
From "Of Mice and Men" by John Steinbeck
Of her there bred mortal > lethal 5 A thousand young ones, which she daily fed, 6 Sucking upon her poisonous dugs; each one 7 Of sundry shapes, yet all ill-favoured.
From The Faerie Queene — Volume 01 by Spenser, Edmund
Finn, with his two foster-brothers, was at the dugs of the foster-mother, a soft-eyed little sheep-dog, then occupying a very comfortable corner of the big bed in the coach-house.
From Finn The Wolfhound by Buxton, Robert Hugh
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.
