dogged

From the verb to dog.

• (Received Pronunciation): IPA^(key): /dɒɡd/
• (US): enPR: dôgd, IPA^(key): /dɔɡd/
• (cot-caught merger) IPA^(key): /dɑɡd/

dogged

1. simple past tense and past participle of dog
   • 1903, Samuel Butler, The Way of All Flesh:

     At night proctors patrolled the street and dogged your steps if you tried to go into any haunt where the presence of vice was suspected.

From Middle English dogged, doggid, doggyd (“characteristics similar to that of a dog”), equivalent to dog +‎ -ed.

• (Received Pronunciation): enPR: dŏg'ĭd, IPA^(key): /ˈdɒɡɪd/
• (US): enPR: dôg'ĭd, IPA^(key): /ˈdɔɡɪd/

dogged (comparative more dogged, superlative most dogged)

1. stubbornly persevering, steadfast
   • 1900, Jack London, The Son of the Wolf:

     Still, the dogged obstinacy of his race held him to the pace he had set, and would hold him till he dropped in his tracks.

   • 1941, Emily Carr, chapter 18, in Klee Wyck‎:

     Rushing out to the point above the reef, we watched the conflict between canoe and sea. When the man reached the gas boat, the screams of the boy stopped. With great risk they loaded the canoe till she began to take water. The boy bailed furiously. The long dogged pull of the man's oars challenged death inch by inch, wave by wave.

   • 2004, Chris Wallace, Character: Profiles in Presidential Courage:

     It had taken nine years from the evening that Truman first showed up with a pie plate at her mother's door, but his dogged perseverance eventually won him the hand of his boyhood Sunday school crush.

• committed, determined, persistent, steadfast, tenacious
• See also Thesaurus:obstinate

• doggedly (adv)
• doggedness (n)

dogged (not comparable)

1. (dated, slang) very
   • 1918, Ethel Penman Hope, Dr. Paul (page 127)

     "I'm afraid I've given him a heap of trouble. You see," he explained, looking at Paul critically, "I never thought of eating before I left town, and one gets so dogged hungry, you know walking. I say it is a long tramp, isn't it?"