bow-wow

Alternative forms

• bow wow

Etymology

Onomatopoeic.

Interjection

bow-wow

1. Representing the sound of a dog barking.

Noun

bow-wow (plural bow-wows)

1. The sound of a dog barking.
   • 1864, Bessie Rayner Parkes, “Fontainebleau” in Good Words, Volume 5, p. 224,

     […] a chorus of quadruped, white and brown,

     Bark’d affirmative, “gone to town,”

     With affable bursts of French bow-wow;

     (As part of the family they knew how!)

   • 1911, Zane Grey, The Young Lion Hunter, New York: Grosset & Dunlap, Chapter 6, p. 63,

     We neared a hollow where Prince barked eagerly. Curley answered, and likewise Queen. Mux’s short, angry bow-wow showed that he was in line.

2. (humorous or childish) A dog.
   • 1902, Theodore Roosevelt, letter to Kermit Roosevelt dated 13 October, 1902, in Joseph Bucklin Bishop (editor), Theodore Roosevelt’s Letters to His Children, New York: Scribner, 1919, p. 36,

     Gem is really a very nice small bow-wow, but Mother found that in this case possession was less attractive than pursuit.

   • 1953, Ogden Nash, “The Pushover” in You Can’t Get There From Here, Boston: Little, Brown & Co., p. 56,

     My grandchild, who, when walking, wobbles,

     Calls dogs Bow-wows, and turkeys, Gobbles.

     Today I called a cow Moo-moo;

     She’s got me talking that way too.

Adjective

bow-wow (not comparable)

1. (informal) (of language) Grandiose.
   • 1785, James Boswell, The Journal of a Tour to the Hebrides, London: Charles Dilly, p. 8,

     Lord Pembroke said once to me at Wilton, with a happy pleasantry, and some truth, that “Dr. Johnson’s sayings would not appear so extraordinary were it not for his bow-wow way;” but I admit the truth of this only on some occasions.

   • 1826, Walter Scott, Diary entry for 14 March, 1826, in The Complete Works of Sir Walter Scott; with a Biography, New York: Conner & Cooke, 1833, Volume 7, Chapter 68, p. 475,

     Miss Austen […] had a talent for describing the involvements, and feelings, and characters of ordinary life, which is to me the most wonderful I ever met with. The Big Bow-wow strain I can do myself like any now going; but the exquisite touch, which renders ordinary commonplace things and characters interesting, from the truth of the description and the sentiment, is denied to me.