lap dog

• lap-dog, lapdog

• IPA^(key): /ˈlæpdɒɡ/

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lap dog (plural lap dogs)

1. (cynology) A small toy dog, kept as household pet, whose light weight and companionable temperament make it both suited and disposed to spend time resting in the comfort of its master's lap; a dog bred to behave in this manner.
   • 1766, Oliver Goldsmith, chapter 17, in The Vicar of Wakefield:

     A lady loses her muff, her fan, or her lap-dog, and so the silly poet runs home to versify the disaster.

   • 1889, F. Marion Crawford, chapter 4, in Greifenstein:

     Frau von Greifenstein had seated herself in a straw chair with her parasol, her fan and her lap-dog, a little toy terrier which was always suffering from some new and unheard-of nervous complaint.

   • 2007 December 1, Harry Hurt III, “Proof That Overscheduled Modern Life Isn’t Fit for a Dog”, in New York Times, retrieved 5 December 2011:

     Steffi is a tricolor King Charles spaniel, an archetypal lap dog and love sponge, barely a foot high and no more than 10 pounds.

2. (idiomatic, by extension) A person who behaves in a servile manner, such as a sycophantic employee or a fawning lover.

   Synonyms: ass-kisser, bootlicker, sycophant, toady

   • 1908–1910, E[dward] M[organ] Forster, chapter 16, in Howards End, New York, N.Y., London: G[eorge] P[almer] Putnam’s Sons […], published 1910, →OCLC:

     As a lady's lap-dog Leonard did not excel. He was not an Italian, still less a Frenchman.

   • 2007 October 28, Dan Bilefsky, “The Special Relationship Tries to Swim the Channel”, in New York Times, retrieved 5 December 2011:

     Prime Minister Gordon Brown, who vacations in Cape Cod, has nevertheless been […] determined to shed the image of his predecessor, Tony Blair, as America’s lap dog.

   • 2014, Charles Seife, “Capture”, in John Brockman, editor, What Should We Be Worried About?, Harper Collins, →ISBN, page 36:

     This process, known as “regulatory capture,” turns regulators from watchdogs into lapdogs.

• lapdoggery
• lap-doggy