running dog
Americannoun
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Disparaging. (especially in Chinese Communist propaganda)
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a person or institution subservient to counterrevolutionary interests.
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a manipulable, servile follower; lackey.
to be reviled as a running dog of the colonialists.
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Architecture. Vitruvian scroll.
Etymology
Origin of running dog
1925–30; in political sense, translation of Chinese zǒugǒu
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.
Mr. Inamori once lived in the factory during a workers’ strike — being denounced by unions as “a running dog for capitalism” — to finish a project that he felt was critical for the company’s survival.
From Washington Post
The risk for Britain, Mr. Powell said, is that it is viewed in other European capitals as merely a “running dog for the Americans.”
From New York Times
On Twitter, China’s consul general in Rio de Janeiro recently posted a photo of Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, calling him “boy” and “spendthrift!!!” and accusing him of turning Canada into a “running dog of the U.S.”
From Los Angeles Times
“That will put Disney in an uncomfortable position since they can’t afford — financially — to upset China, but they also don’t want to be seen as a ‘running dog’ of China,” he explained.
From Fox News
When she does, though, she is bombarded with hostile posts saying she should not be criticizing party officials or China — with one troll suggesting that she was a “running dog for the Americans.”
From Washington Post
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.
