pup
Americannoun
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pups
plural
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a young dog; puppy.
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the young of certain other animals, as the rat, shark, or fur seal.
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a small plant developing as an offshoot from a mature plant.
verb (used without object)
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pups,
present (3rd person singular)
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pupped,
past participle, past
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pupping
present participle
noun
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a young dog, esp when under one year of age; puppy
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the young of various other animals, such as the seal
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(of a bitch) pregnant
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informal a conceited young man (esp in the phrase young pup )
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to swindle someone by selling him something worthless
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slang it's early yet
verb
Other Word Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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pupsimple
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pupssimple
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have puppedperfect
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has puppedperfect
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am puppingprogressive
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are puppingprogressive
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is puppingprogressive
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have been puppingperfect progressive
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has been puppingperfect progressive
Past
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puppedsimple
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had puppedperfect
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was puppingprogressive
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were puppingprogressive
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had been puppingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of pup
First recorded in 1580–90; shortened variant of puppy
Explanation
Even though you probably think of a young, cuddly dog when you hear the word pup, a pup is the correct name for the young of many different mammals (even the not-so-cuddly porcupine!). When your dog has babies, they're pups, and the same is true of baby wolves. What's more surprising is that so are the baby anteaters in the zoo, as well as the offspring of sea lions, gerbils, and mongooses, among others. Sometimes this noun is also used to mean a young person who's particularly naive or arrogant. Pup comes from puppy, from the Middle French poupée, "doll."
Vocabulary lists containing pup
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:
Does your precious pup snap and yap at anything that moves?
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 27, 2026
The arrival marks a milestone for the park, which last welcomed a single capybara pup four years ago.
From BBC ● Oct. 19, 2026
Their beloved dog died at 16, which the couple taxidermied and mounted in their home so they can still commune with the pup.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 13, 2026
"The pup appeared grateful for the assistance," a police statement added.
From Barron's ● Sep. 28, 2026
“The rat was merely trying to sleep. Believe me, pup, if I had wanted to kill you we would not be having this conversation,” said Ripred.
From "Gregor the Overlander" by Suzanne Collins
My son has been wanting to collect all the pups from the Paw Patrol movie ever since my husband and I took him to see it.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 25, 2026
Miller is going to take some of those banana pups for her yard, and out front, she’ll plant a pollinator garden.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 24, 2026
Curraghs Wildlife Park has experienced its busiest October weekend ever after the birth of eight capybara pups, which staff say have "delighted" people and boosted conservation funding.
From BBC ● Oct. 19, 2026
The bill signing comes as California’s gray wolves had at least 42 pups this year — a record.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 30, 2026
Mother stands on the rocky bank, above the stream where the pups cower, eyes wide and tails low, covered in mud.
From "Wayward Creatures" by Dayna Lorentz
John Lang, Esq., deputy-sheriff of Selkirk, had a female cur big with pups, which on one occasion, when out in the fields attending the cattle, was taken in travail, and pupped on the moor.
From Anecdotes of Dogs by Edward Jesse
Let's see; how long have I been a-wearin' of that shirt; oh, I remember, I bought it jist two days afore Five Bob was pupped.
From While the Billy Boils by Henry Lawson
He rested again; then he continued: "That—that there dog was pupped on the track," he said, with a sad sort of a smile.
From While the Billy Boils by Henry Lawson
The creature was but pupped the day we left New York, six weeks come Tuesday.
From The Refugees by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
I tell you and your friends that it was not wolves that were pupped in the sand of the shaggy Prussian forests when the first Hohenzollern was dropped.
From The Crimson Tide A Novel by Robert W. (Robert William) Chambers
"Although all of the cownose rays in Bermuda to date are females, we also observed small, immature rays suggesting pupping may have recently occurred here," said Ajemian.
From Science Daily ● May 20, 2024
This month the seals will begin another pupping season in the Gulf of St. Lawrence.
From National Geographic ● Jan. 23, 2024
The Marine Mammal Protection Act of 1972 made it safe for the seals to return from Canadian waters, but they didn’t establish pupping colonies until the early 1990s.
From Scientific American ● Jul. 2, 2023
Researchers from the ZSL found the Thames was home to 2,866 grey seals after pupping season in 2021.
From BBC ● Jan. 21, 2023
The pupping usually takes place from the sixty-second to the sixty-fourth day; and the process having commenced, from a quarter to three quarters of an hour generally takes place between the production of each puppy.
From The Dog by William Youatt
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