see a man about a dog
In real, traceable use. Part of the curated seed collection; community review is coming.
Meaning · English
A euphemistic way to announce one's departure while concealing the true purpose.
Nghĩa · Tiếng Việt
Cách nói tránh để che giấu mục đích thực sự khi rời đi
Machine-translated — suggest a fix
Where it’s used:
Used
Widespread English
Examples
Trippy had already gone — to see a man about a dog, down Tottenham Court Road, he said — and Bunny had found the other two Mother Christmasses.
Now we're off to see a man about his dogs.
British National Corpus sentence via the MAGPIE corpus (CC BY 4.0, retrieved 2026-07-30)
Sources & notes
Imported from Wikipedia “English-language idioms” (CC BY-SA 4.0, retrieved 2026-07-29), pending review.
Common questions
What does “see a man about a dog” mean?
A euphemistic way to announce one's departure while concealing the true purpose.
Is “see a man about a dog” formal or informal?
No register label has been reviewed yet — treat it as neutral and check the usage notes above.