dog
n.— «Race track “dogs” (or the equivalent thereof) could have been a factor in the International victory of France’s Match II.…They’re in the category of the carpenter’s “Horse”…A few feet of two-by-four with four legs attached.…The removal of two legs, from one end, turns a horse into a dog. The wooden dogs, often seen in guarding a street excavation and holding a red light at night, once were stock equipment at all race tracks.…Most have been replaced by the inverted yellow traffic cones. Dogs or cones are placed several feet out from the inside rail at times when a track is wet, so that this part of the racing strip will be protected during morning workout hours.» —“About Horses And People…” by Walter Haight Washington Post, Times Herald Nov. 15, 1962. (source: Double-Tongued Dictionary)
Further reading
Advice about college essays from the winner of a top prize for children’s literature: Kelly Barnhill encourages teens to write about experiences that are uniquely their own, from a point of view that is theirs and no one else’s. Plus, why do we say...
While compiling the Oxford English Dictionary, lexicographer James Murray exchanged hundreds of letters a week with authors, advisors, and volunteer researchers. A new collection online lets you eavesdrop on discussions about which words should be...