subs. phr. (nursery).—1. A dog.
d. 1800. COWPER, Beau’s Reply.
| Let my obedience then excuse | |
| My disobedience now, | |
| Nor some reproof yourself refuse | |
| From your aggrieved BOW-WOW. |
1839. DICKENS, Nicholas Nickleby, lxiv. It is all up with its handsome friend! He has gone to the demnition BOW-WOWS.
18[?82]. Broadside Ballad, ‘I Haven’t for a Long Time Now.’
| I sang outside her door each night | |
| Till her father bought a big BOW-WOW. |
2. (old).—a Bostonian: in contempt.
3. (common).—a cavalier; lover: spec. a petticoat-dangler: see TAME CAT.
1877. Chambers’s Journal, 12 March, 173. Mrs. Brittomart was one of those who never tolerated a ‘BOW-WOW’—a species of animal well known in India—and never went to the hills as a ‘grass-widow.’
