Fwd: "dog-eared, adj." - Word of the Day from the OED

[Dave Monroe]

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Subject: "dog-eared, adj." - Word of the Day from the OED
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Your word for today is: dog-eared, adj.

dog-eared, adj.
Pronunciation: Brit. /ˈdɒgɪəd/,  U.S. /ˈdɔgˌɪ(ə)rd/, /ˈdɑgˌɪ(ə)rd/
Etymology: <  dog n.1 + eared adj.1, after dog's ear n. Compare
dog's-eared adj., and later dog-ear v., dog-ear n.
 1.  Of a book, magazine, page, etc.: having a corner or corners
folded or turned down, either through rough use or to mark a place.
Cf. dog-ear v.
1767 Speech in behalf of Constitution 118 [They] went to dog-eared
statute-books, before un-opened and there made the amazing astonishing
discovery.
1806  N. Biddle Let. 11 May in  R. A. McNeal N. Biddle in Greece
(1993) 91 A little dogeared dirty volume.
1824  Macaulay in Knight's Q. Mag. Aug. 117 The endearing
recollections of childhood,—the old schoolroom, the dog-eared grammar.
1896 Good Words Jan. 7/1 Piles of second-hand furniture and dog-eared prints.
1954  W. Faulkner Fable 339 He reached inside his tunic and produced a
soiled dog-eared paper.
1973  M. Amis Rachel Papers 20 He‥sat down‥at the table, briskly
flattening a dog-eared Sunday Mirror.
1997 Gourmet June 73  (advt.) Poring over dog-eared cookbooks and wine guides.
 2.  fig. and in extended use. Worn-out; tired, hackneyed; shabby,
ragged, tatty.
1872 Scribner's Monthly June 146/2 One irreverent urchin fires off his
single dog-eared joke.
1875  ‘Eona’ Unfortunate Tommy 252 She is a little tawdry thing, with
her shoes down at heel, and her hair in curl papers!‥ She had neither
curl papers nor dog-eared heels when I saw her to-day.
1922  A. Stringer Prairie Child 97 The guitar was a dog-eared old
instrument that had most decidedly seen better days.
1969  R. St. Jacques Bk. of Numbers xxiv. 324 You chaps don't look too
dog eared after a day and a night of rotgut swilling.
1999 Empire Nov. 94/3 The result effectively reconfigures a host of
dog-eared horror clichés for the video-literate MTV generation.
2001 Classic FM Aug. 82/1, I took up the guitar and ended up singing
in dog-eared folk clubs.

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