Idiom
dog in the manger
Meaning
Someone who denies to others something that the denier cannot use.
Meaning adapted from Wiktionary, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Examples
“He is a dog in the manger about his old bike.”
“She refuses to lend her books to anyone, acting like a dog in the manger.”
“By keeping the empty office locked and unused, the manager acted like a dog in the manger toward his staff.”
Examples
simple
“He is a dog in the manger about his old bike.”
contextual
“She refuses to lend her books to anyone, acting like a dog in the manger.”
complex
“By keeping the empty office locked and unused, the manager acted like a dog in the manger toward his staff.”
Origin
From a Greek fable about a dog preventing other animals from eating the hay in a manger, even though as a carnivore it could not eat the hay itself. Although the story was ascribed to Aesop's Fables in the 15th century, no ancient source does so. The phrase first appears in the writings of Diogenianus.
Key words
Related idioms
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