spaniel

[span-yuhl]

noun

1. one of any of several breeds of small or medium-sized dogs, usually having a long, silky coat and long, drooping ears.

2. a submissive, fawning, or cringing person.

spaniel

/ ˈspænjəl /

noun

1. any of several breeds of gundog with long drooping ears, a silky coat, and formerly a docked tail See clumber spaniel cocker spaniel field spaniel springer spaniel Sussex spaniel water spaniel

2. either of two toy breeds of spaniel See King Charles spaniel

3. an obsequiously devoted person

Other Word Forms

• spaniellike adjective

Word History and Origins

Origin of spaniel¹

1350–1400; Middle English spaynel < Old French espaignol Spanish (dog), derivative of Espaigne Spain

Word History and Origins

Origin of spaniel¹

C14: from Old French espaigneul Spanish (dog), from Old Provençal espanhol, ultimately from Latin Hispāniolus Spanish

Example Sentences

On the night of Sept. 18, a neighbor of the “Morbius” star let her small spaniel out to her yard and returned five minutes later to find the dog had been attacked.

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Bailey, a three-and-half-year-old spaniel, had been used to help rehabilitate inmates.

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Seventy-eight springer spaniels were discovered living in a filthy house in South Yorkshire in April.

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Mazie was my sweet girl, a jaunty caramel-colored spaniel with bulgy brown eyes that radiated love, even in her final days when she fell almost every time she tried to stand.

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She loved to walk her springer spaniel Bruce around Brantham, a village where she'd lived for six years and always said she felt safe.

Read more on BBC