Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun A small halo, sometimes resembling part of a rainbow, near the horizon just off the parhelic circle.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun A mock sun, or parhelion.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun (Meteorol.) A luminous spot occasionally seen a few degrees from the sun, supposed to be formed by the intersection of two or more halos, or in a manner similar to that of halos.
  • noun A fragmentary rainbow; a small rainbow near the horizon; -- called also dog and weathergaw.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun Alternative spelling of sun dog.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun a bright spot on the parhelic circle; caused by diffraction by ice crystals

Etymologies

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Examples

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  • From the OED:

    1896 KIPLING Seven Seas, Three Sealers 68

    And they saw the sun-dogs in the haze and the seal upon the shore.

    June 28, 2007

  • Compare fogdog.

    July 29, 2021