dog in the manger. The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language: Fourth Edition. 2000.

The American Heritage^® Dictionary of the English Language: Fourth Edition. 2000.

dog in the manger

NOUN:	Inflected forms: pl. dogs in the manger One who prevents others from enjoying what one has no use for oneself.
ETYMOLOGY:	From a fable in which a dog prevented an ox from eating hay he did not want himself.


The American Heritage^® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition. Copyright © 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by the Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.