as in sad
feeling unhappiness "Why do you look so hangdog today?" she asked

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Example Sentences

Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
Recent Examples of hangdog Vic accepts his highly public and private humiliation with hangdog equanimity. Stephanie Zacharek, Time, 18 Mar. 2022 Segel earns some empathy as a hangdog Everyman, though his backstory remains such a deliberate blank that any insight is mostly gleaned from his blundering missteps and low-simmering misery. Leah Greenblatt, EW.com, 18 Mar. 2022 Last year, for example, a player came into Brown’s office with a hangdog look on his face explaining his mom was pulling him out of the program. Richard A. Marini, San Antonio Express-News, 18 Feb. 2022 Another slip here is the casting of Effros in the lead role of Martin, a hangdog techie who travels from New York to Cape Cod to settle the estate of his late, estranged dad, Kenneth. Gary Goldstein, Los Angeles Times, 9 Feb. 2022 See All Example Sentences for hangdog
Recent Examples of Synonyms for hangdog
Adjective
  • The sad reality is that Lucky really hasn't had all that much luck in his life to date.
    Jack Beresford, MSNBC Newsweek, 26 July 2025
  • Collins, who has previously celebrated the unique pleasures of the early dinner, finds something to like about lunch in all its guises—the power lunch, the liquid lunch, even the sad desk lunch.
    Ian Crouch, New Yorker, 25 July 2025
Adjective
  • Now Ortberg’s plan to gradually raise the severely depressed production of its cash cow Max is showing green shoots, but to ensure dominance in the next decade, Boeing’s top chance at besting Airbus is designing and successfully commercializing a totally new and disruptive 737 successor.
    Shawn Tully, Fortune, 2 Aug. 2025
  • Researchers think this effect could buffer against or repair some of the weaker ties between neurons in a depressed brain.
    Erica Sloan, SELF, 25 July 2025
Adjective
  • Galino is unhappy with how Jimenez is running his territory, and thinks Tommy can help the cartel get into the oil business.
    EW.com, EW.com, 27 July 2025
  • Things will become much clearer once Jenkins — who is unhappy with his current contract is currently sidelined with a back injury — begins practicing.
    Rob Reischel, Forbes.com, 27 July 2025
Adjective
  • Ak’s heartbroken family are still reeling from her death.
    Rocco Parascandola, New York Daily News, 22 July 2025
  • Faced with no other option, the heartbroken family surrendered Draco to the Los Angeles County Department of Animal Care and Control (DACC), despite having loved and raised him for over five years.
    Tereza Shkurtaj, People.com, 20 July 2025
Adjective
  • For now, this is DeVries on the job: intent but measured, teeth ready to clamp down on his tongue, establishing standards while also very much trying to make sure his team isn’t miserable from the beginning.
    Brian Hamilton, New York Times, 11 July 2025
  • His Panthers opened the season with two miserable losses, complete with booing from fans in the home opener, and the 23-year-old soon became the first quarterback selected No. 1 overall in the Super Bowl era to be benched for non-injury reasons.
    Eric Jackson, Sportico.com, 7 July 2025
Adjective
  • But the overriding feeling of the work is melancholy.
    Hugh Morris, New York Times, 25 July 2025
  • Anna, an American student at Harvard, falls deeply and unaccountably in love with Christoph, who is on exchange from Germany, in this melancholy début novel.
    The New Yorker, New Yorker, 21 July 2025
Adjective
  • Truth be told, neither outcome would have been a bad choice.
    Blake Oestriecher, Forbes.com, 4 Aug. 2025
  • This wasteful Everglades abomination surely is one of our worst.
    Elise Bennett, The Orlando Sentinel, 3 Aug. 2025
Adjective
  • At the end of the day, Ohtani was pitching into the fourth inning for the first time since his second Tommy John surgery, so the Dodgers were likely playing it safe rather than sorry.
    Zach Pressnell, MSNBC Newsweek, 31 July 2025
  • Screenwriter Busch, who, gay and in his 30s, played the 16-year-old teenage girl Gidget — sorry, Chicklet — in his original off-Broadway stage show here plays the detective-in-drag investigating the murders.
    Ryan Lattanzio, IndieWire, 30 July 2025

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Cite this Entry

“Hangdog.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/hangdog. Accessed 7 Aug. 2025.

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