Dogged

//dɒɡd// adj, adv, verb, slang

adj, adv, verb, slang ·Common ·High school level

Definitions

Verb
  1. 1
    simple past and past participle of dog form-of, participle, past

    "At night proctors patrolled the street and dogged your steps if you tried to go into any haunt where the presence of vice was suspected."

Adjective
  1. 1
    stubbornly persevering, steadfast

    "Still, the dogged obstinacy of his race held him to the pace he had set, and would hold him till he dropped in his tracks."

Adjective
  1. 1
    stubbornly unyielding wordnet
Adverb
  1. 1
    very dated, not-comparable, slang

    ""I'm afraid I've given him a heap of trouble. You see," he explained, looking at Paul critically, "I never thought of eating before I left town, and one gets so dogged hungry, you know walking. I say it is a long tramp, isn't it?""

Example

More examples

"Misfortune dogged him all his life."

Etymology

Etymology 1

From the verb to dog.

Etymology 2

From Middle English dogged, doggid, doggyd (“characteristics similar to that of a dog”), equivalent to dog + -ed.

Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.