dog robber

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dog robber

Where it comes from

There are many conjectures about the origin of this term, ranging from the peacetime occupation of the title character in The Good Soldier Švejk by Jaroslav Hašek, to the use of the term dog for enlisted men, hence someone who took the best of everything away from the dogs to give to the officers. The most likely conjecture is that it comes from a 19th-century term for a contemptible person who stole scraps of leftover food that would otherwise be fed to dogs.

noun dog robbers

derogatory, obsolete A contemptible person, especially one who steals scraps of food. Get out of my daylight, you dog-robber, or I'll walk the little horse around your neck like a three-ringed circus.
obsolete A menial; a low-level servant. If they would hire me for a dog-robber (a low menial), I would do it for a dime a day," he muttered, " just for the chance to hear them talk.
Similar: dogsbody
slang An officer's orderly or servant; a factotum; Someone whose job is to run errands for an officer. He had detailed from his company a jovial Irish lad as orderly — the regular army name for the position is dog-robber.
slang One whose role is to acquire scarce goods, from military equipment to liquor or perfume, often staying barely within the letter of the law. Trading "enemy flags" for weapons proved to be an effective way of fulfilling some of the requirements, but the dog robber was still using his talents to obtain the more difficult to find items.
in plural, slang Civilian clothing; mufti. My friend led the way, clad in his jodhpurs, on his trusty black stallion, and I followed, wearing 'dog-robbers' — both of us with haversacks containing our gear for a Spanish weekend.

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MLA

"dog robber." Wiktionary, via Micwyn, micwyn.com/word/dog%20robber. Accessed 6 Nov. 2026.

APA

dog robber. (n.d.). In Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Retrieved November 6, 2026, from https://micwyn.com/word/dog%20robber

Chicago

"dog robber." Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Accessed November 6, 2026. https://micwyn.com/word/dog%20robber.

BibTeX

@misc{dog_robber_2026,
  title = {dog robber},
  howpublished = {Wiktionary, via Micwyn},
  year = {2026},
  url = {https://micwyn.com/word/dog%20robber},
  urldate = {2026-11-06}
}