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- Dictionarydog in the manger/ˌdɒɡ ɪn ðə ˈmeɪn(d)ʒə/
noun
- 1. a person who has no need of, or ability to use, a possession that would be of use or value to others, but who prevents others from having it: "what a dog in the manger you must be!"
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The story and metaphor of The Dog in the Manger derives from an old Greek fable which has been transmitted in several different versions. Interpreted variously over the centuries, the metaphor is now used to speak of one who spitefully prevents others from having something for which one has no use.
A DOG IN THE MANGER definition: 1. someone who keeps something that they do not want in order to prevent someone else from getting…. Learn more.
Aug 23, 2018 · Meaning. one who prevents others from enjoying something despite having no use for it. spiteful and mean-spirited. someone who keeps something that they do not want in order to prevent someone else from getting it. a person who selfishly keeps something that he or she does not really need or want so that others may not use or enjoy it.
The meaning of DOG IN THE MANGER is a person who selfishly withholds from others something useless to himself.
From this moral, and the accompanying fable, the common expression ‘dog in a manger’ (or ‘dog in the manger’) was born, to refer to someone who has no need of (or ability to use) a possession that would be useful or valuable to others, but who prevents others from having it.
The infamous ‘dog in a manger’, who occupied the manger not because he wanted to eat the hay there but to prevent the other animals from doing so, is generally said to have been the invention of the Greek storyteller Aesop (circa 600 BC).
dog in the manger. Someone who insists on possessing something they do not want or need out of spite to prevent someone else from having it. Refers to a fable in which a dog in a manger prevents other animals from accessing food that it cannot even eat.
A person who spitefully refuses to let someone else benefit from something for which he or she has no personal use: “We asked our neighbor for the fence posts he had left over, but, like a dog in the manger, he threw them out rather than give them to us.”
The Dog in the Manger. A Dog asleep in a manger filled with hay, was awakened by the Cattle, which came in tired and hungry from working in the field. But the Dog would not let them get near the manger, and snarled and snapped as if it were filled with the best of meat and bones, all for himself.
Nov 19, 2013 · A dog lay in a manger, and by his growling and snapping prevented the oxen from eating the hay which had been placed for them. “What a selfish Dog!” said one of them to his companions; “he cannot eat the hay himself, and yet refuses to allow those to eat who can.”
