A yelping cur.

1

1801.  

        Who heeds the Whiffit’s bark, when tempests howl?
Or, if you please, when noble mastiffs growl.
‘Olio,’ p. 41 (Phila.).    

2

1802.  One of the whiffets of the party, attempted to lay his paw upon a bone, when Duane, like a surly mastiff, bid him be still and wait the pleasure of his masters, adding, significantly, “a nod is as good as a wink for a blind horse.”—The Balance, Sept. 28, p. 307.

3

1820.  Yelping like a whiffet in pursuit of some game of which it appeared to be on the track.—Mass. Spy, Sept. 13.

4

1839.  There was not a Whig whiffet in the country but could ask, &c.—Mr. Duncan of Ohio, House of Repr., Jan. 17: Cong. Globe, p. 105, App.

5

1839.  He was, spaniel-like, skulking from his duty and his post, at the nod of party discipline; but, when backed and prompted by the Abolitionist Slade, he assumed all the pertness of a whiffet, hissed on, puppy-like, to do that which a bigger dog had not the courage to attempt.—The same, March 4: id., p. 212/3.

6