Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. Chiefly British Slang One who does menial work; a drudge.
Wiktionary
WordNet 3.0
- n. a worker who has to do all the unpleasant or boring jobs that no one else wants to do
Etymologies
- dog's + body. 1818, British navy slang, originally derogatory reference to unappetizing pease pudding (compare dog's breakfast), as if it were made of mashed dog meat. In 20th century applied to low-ranked sailors, thence menial servants in wider usage. (Wiktionary)
- British slang, naval rations (obsolete), midshipman. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“One of his first hires when he entered the Senate in 1977 was the equivalent of a parliamentary private secretary — a "dogsbody," in British parlance — whose task was to scour the press every day and then draft notes to anyone and everyone who might appropriately receive a comment or observation from a newly installed U. S senator who hoped to remain one for a long time.”
“Carl becomes a kind of dogsbody for the station staff, doing their bidding and absorbing their wisdom.”
Marshall Fine: Huff Post Review: Pirate Radio plays the hits - and misses
“In the early part of the 20th century, "dogsbody" came to mean the guy who gets the crap jobs.”
“I became a messenger, or I had a job called "desk assistant," which basically meant dogsbody at ABC News.”
“I am a combination of researcher, secretary, office girl, tea maker and general dogsbody.”
Death of a Scriptwriter
“He chafed with annoyance at being treated as a dogsbody by the older apprentices, loathed their loose conversation, and felt he was learning nothing.”
The Wall Street Journal: 'The Making of Mr. Gray's Anatomy: Books, Bodies, Fortune, Fame'
“I wouldn't have missed it for the world, of course; I sorta felt I owed a bit of elbow grease given the work put in by the crew, and in truth it was kinda wonderful being a dogsbody rather than ...”
Adventures of a Couch-Hopping Scribbler Part 2: That Toddlin Town
“I listened in vain for the urgent clatter of typewriters but all I got was cynical hard-bitten hacks hurling sexist abuse at the paper's lowly but idealistic dogsbody who, naturally, was the only one asking the right questions.”
The Guardian: Rewind TV: Page Eight; The Conspiracy Files: 9/11 Ten Years On; The Field of Blood
“International best-seller John Connolly has variously worked as a journalist, barman, local government official, waiter and a dogsbody at Harrods department store in London.”
Jonathan Maberry Interviews International Best-seller, John Connolly
“The young dogsbody of the shop, the gullible and neglected Seymour, ends up cultivating a bizarre plant that only grows when he feeds it blood.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘dogsbody’.
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metaphoric references to dogs
As an ongoing part of my project, Dogs in Metaphor and Idiom, Illustrated, (www.metaphordogs.org) I am continually adding terms. If you know a term that fi...
dog, alpha male, at bay, bark, bird dog, bitch, bitchin, bloodhound, bulldog, canaille, canines, cerberus and 131 more...
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Gapeseeds and Muckworms - Compound De...
A list of compound derogatory names such as gapeseed, muckworm and lickspittle. Your one-word contributions to this list are welcome.
See sionnach's list derogatory terms I should use ...gapeseed, muckworm, lickspittle, makeweight, bootlicker, backscratcher, apple-polisher, backslapper, brownnoser, rakeshame, yesman, freeloader and 293 more...
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One word book titles
More popular books often have shorter titles. Here is a list of one word book titles
blink, Freakonomics, roots, sugar, banjo, rising, cane, crave, emotions, love, until, dune and 118 more...
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WF - nominal compounds (figurative)
An extensive list I have been working on for quite some time. Feel free to add more of the kind if you miss any.
brainstorming, upside, downside, goldplating, bikeshedding, mudslinging, downgrading, headhunter, streamlining, mainstreaming, gerrymandering, frontloading and 503 more...
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Steampunk
Words used quite often in steampunk
ansible, airship, chymical, valve, clockwork, dirigible, thaumaturgy, copper, bronze, difference engine, gear, rivets and 516 more...
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• Iroquoisy
Isn't it? (See definition on iroquoisy.)
iroquoisy, iroquois, fruit bat, coccyx, heiligenschein, homesick, schadenfreude, awooga, tralatition, pessary, Kateri Tekakwitha, Cilicia and 28 more...
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Quaintnesses
For those who wish no words were ever forgotten
opprobrium, tedium, encomium, odium, ire, enmity, beguile, wile, brazen, popinjay, squit, hoity-toity and 1161 more...
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bintalshamsa's list
My Favorite Words
weltschmerz, perspicacity, idée fixe, invigilator, salubrious, tchotchke, ex nihilo, invidious, malapropism, naïve, sardonic, elide and 1401 more...
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edes's Words
table talk, tuneful, bestrewn, determinate fashion, unpretending, personage, duly impressed, shirring, caw, hatchet job, gummy, comely and 225 more...
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ulyssean
... as in "by James Joyce"
stately, plump, aloft, gurgling, untonsured, chrysostomos, jowl, parapet, jesuit, indigestion, scutter, noserag and 688 more...
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Compounds That Look Freakish
You know who you are, freakish compounds. Though very useful, some of these words just don't seem right together--or, their meanings are so far from what the two (or more) component words suggest t...
nightjar, bullfinch, grassquit, bananaquit, ovenbird, waxwing, stonechat, wheatear, bushtit, wrentit, starthroat, godwit and 158 more...
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Just 'cause I like 'em, D
dodecahedron, din, diglyceride, dysphotopsia, decoction, deboss, diatonic, dithyramb, divagate, discalced, dishdasha, daft and 281 more...
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A spoonful of sugar
Words I should learn/I want to learn/I just learned, with a quotation to help the medicine go down.
approbation, assuage, chicanery, abscond, effrontery, enervation, equivocate, ennui, aftertaste, filibuster, perfunctory, abide and 391 more...
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sionnach's Words
contumely, fomite, holmgang, poltroon, eleemosynary, obsidian, nugatory, grindcore, felch, recrudescent, pyx, parenteral and 3271 more...
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Noah's Park
Hello, and Welcome™! Come and visit our most diverse land of our Animalesque™ adventures. Here at Noah's Park™ we have Virtually All You'd Ever Want To See™. An experience that is related to ani...
sheep's eyes, doe-eyed, cat-eyed, bug-eyed, cat's paw, black swan, leapfrog, menagerie, cold turkey, card shark, snail's pace, bull's eye and 362 more...
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the omnibus
preponderance, idioglossia, acumen, heteronym, flux, anacoluthon, metonymy, impetus, constellation, exegesis, revelatory, cloistered and 877 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for dogsbody.
ruzuzu wowf May 24, 2010
thtownse Good word. Lie down. May 24, 2010
brtom Dogskull, dogsniff, eyes on the ground, moves to one great goal. Ah, poor dogsbody. Here lies poor dogsbody's body.
Joyce, Ulysses, 3 Dec 29, 2006