one man and a dog

Noun

one man and a dog

1. Alternative form of one man and his dog
   • From The Guardian newspaper

     I came to Winchester, first as a summer volunteer digger, working for £2 a week and my keep, so I think I'm quite well paid now. Then I became part of the rescue archaeology service, which was one man and a dog - I was the dog.

   • From Automation World

     You may recall the old automation wisecrack, “The fully automated factory of the future employs only one man and a dog. The dog is there to make sure the man doesn’t touch anything, and the man is there to feed the dog.”

   • From the Wellcome Foundation

     "I think people have underestimated just what needs to be done in terms of developing career structures, and also developing centres with a critical mass: you can’t train people when you’ve got one man and a dog."

   • From BusinessEye

     "He started work as the proverbial one man and a dog operation..."