as in shark
one who makes harsh, personal attacks against opponents
his reputation as a political attack dog earned him the vice presidential spot on the ticket
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Examples of attack dog in a Sentence
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Newsom also acted as an attack dog for Biden at the GOP presidential debate last year and deflected criticism of Biden’s troubling performance after the president’s debate against Trump in June.
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Taryn Luna, Los Angeles Times, 23 July 2024
This official is not appointed to be an attack dog for the mayor’s personal legal woes and vendettas.
—Charles King, New York Daily News, 30 Apr. 2024
Its flights of fancy jut against harsh intrusions of real-world absurdism, where human lives are coldly compressed through the intricacies of E.U. asylum law, while refugee smugglers charge their victims 20 euros extra for a sprinkling of pepper to ward off attack dogs.
—Guy Lodge, Variety, 3 July 2024
Mao was impressed by the toughness his protégé Deng Xiaoping displayed during interminable debates over ideology in Moscow in the 1960s, when Deng was Beijing’s most prominent attack dog on the world stage.
—Joseph Torigian, Foreign Affairs, 24 June 2024
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Taryn Luna, Los Angeles Times, 23 July 2024
This official is not appointed to be an attack dog for the mayor’s personal legal woes and vendettas.
—Charles King, New York Daily News, 30 Apr. 2024
Its flights of fancy jut against harsh intrusions of real-world absurdism, where human lives are coldly compressed through the intricacies of E.U. asylum law, while refugee smugglers charge their victims 20 euros extra for a sprinkling of pepper to ward off attack dogs.
—Guy Lodge, Variety, 3 July 2024
Mao was impressed by the toughness his protégé Deng Xiaoping displayed during interminable debates over ideology in Moscow in the 1960s, when Deng was Beijing’s most prominent attack dog on the world stage.
—Joseph Torigian, Foreign Affairs, 24 June 2024
See all Example Sentences for attack dog
These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'attack dog.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.
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“Attack dog.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/attack%20dog. Accessed 20 Aug. 2024.
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