dog in the manger

1. 1.

   someone who prevents you from enjoying something that they themselves have no need for

   Broaderselfish person

Questions about dog in the manger

What does dog in the manger mean?

dog in the manger means "someone who prevents you from enjoying something that they themselves have no need for".

Is dog in the manger a common word?

dog in the manger is banded "Rare" — specialist or archaic — most readers will not have met it. The band comes from how often the word appears in a large corpus of everyday English, not from an editor's impression.