hair of the dog

Proposed by a contributor, not yet supported by evidence.

Sense 1

Meaning · English

A small amount of alcohol consumed to alleviate a hangover

Nghĩa · Tiếng Việt

Một lượng nhỏ rượu được tiêu thụ để giảm bớt cơn say

Machine-translated — suggest a fix

Literally: a literal image of a dog's hair
Where it’s used: Used Widespread English

Examples

The historic hair of the dog was invented by a member of the Harris family in the 1850s.
He said something which I took to mean ‘ hair of the dog’ in Serbo Croat then he poured.

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 2026-07-31; pending editor spot-check.

Sense 2

Meaning · English

a "modest quencher," taken the morning following a debauch. Originally a "HAIR OF THE DOG that bit you." This is very old, and seems to show that homœopathy is by no means new, so far as topers, at all events, are concerned.

Nghĩa · Tiếng Việt

Một loại rượu uống vào buổi sáng sau một đêm say

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.

Common questions

What does “hair of the dog” mean?

A small amount of alcohol consumed to alleviate a hangover Literally: a literal image of a dog's hair

Is “hair of the dog” formal or informal?

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