English · Idiom Candidate

dog in the manger

Proposed by a contributor, not yet supported by evidence.

Sense 1

Both English Tiếng Việt

Meaning · English

Someone who prevents others from having something they themselves do not want.

Nghĩa · Tiếng Việt

người ngăn cản người khác có được thứ mà họ không muốn

Machine-translated — suggest a fix

Literally: a dog sitting in a manger

Where it’s used: Used Widespread English

Examples

I think the idea of having numbers from each firm is really a dog in the manger attitude.

Eighteen months ago it gave up its monopoly of politics but it continued to exist and it continued really as a kind of dog in the manger to prevent the er establishment of normal multi - party politics.

British National Corpus sentence via the MAGPIE corpus (CC BY 4.0, retrieved 2026-07-30)

Sources & notes

Listed in Wiktionary’s “English idioms” category (retrieved 2026-07-29); definition pending editorial review. Definition drafted by AI (@cf/meta/llama-3.3-70b-instruct-fp8-fast) and auto-approved by rule on 2026-07-30; pending editor spot-check.

Sense 2

Both English Tiếng Việt

Meaning · English

a scurvy, ill-conditioned, selfish fellow. From the fable of that title.

Nghĩa · Tiếng Việt

người tự私, ích kỷ

Machine-translated — suggest a fix

Era: ca. 1874 (Victorian)

Where it’s used: Origin British & Irish English

Sources & notes

Historical definition reproduced from Hotten’s The Slang Dictionary (1874, public domain; Project Gutenberg #42108, retrieved 2026-07-31). Reflects the attitudes of its era.

Topics: Dogs Historical slang (1800s)

Common questions

What does “dog in the manger” mean?

Someone who prevents others from having something they themselves do not want. Literally: a dog sitting in a manger

Is “dog in the manger” formal or informal?

No register label has been reviewed yet — treat it as neutral and check the usage notes above.