Lap dog in Renoir's Misia Sert
Noun
lap dog (plural lap dogs )
A small toy dog , kept as household pet , whose light weight and companionable temperament make it both suited and disposed to spend time resting in the comfort of its master's lap; a dog bred to behave in this manner.
1766 , [ Oliver Goldsmith ] , chapter XVII, in The Vicar of Wakefield: [ … ] , volume (please specify |volume=I or II) , Salisbury, Wiltshire: [ … ] B. Collins, for F[ rancis] Newbery , [ … ] , →OCLC :A lady loses her muff, her fan, or her lap-dog , and so the silly poet runs home to versify the disaster.
1785 , William Cowper , “Book I. The Sofa.”, in The Task, a Poem, [ … ] , London: [ … ] J[ oseph] Johnson ; [ … ] , →OCLC , page 3 :There might ye ſee the pioney ſpread vvide, / The full-blovvn roſe, the ſhepherd and his laſs, / Lap-dog and lambkin vvith black ſtaring eyes, / And parrots vvith tvvin cherries in their beak.
1889 , F. Marion Crawford , chapter 4, in Greifenstein :Frau von Greifenstein had seated herself in a straw chair with her parasol, her fan and her lap-dog , a little toy terrier which was always suffering from some new and unheard-of nervous complaint.
( figurative ) A person who behaves in a servile manner, such as a sycophantic employee or a fawning lover.
Synonyms: ass-kisser , bootlicker , sycophant , toady
2007 October 28, Dan Bilefsky , “The special relationship tries to swim the Channel”, in The New York Times , New York, N.Y.: The New York Times Company , →ISSN , →OCLC :Prime Minister Gordon Brown , who vacations in Cape Cod, has nevertheless been [ …] determined to shed the image of his predecessor, Tony Blair , as America’s lap dog .
2014 , Charles Seife, “Capture”, in John Brockman, editor, What Should We be Worried About? , HarperCollins , →ISBN , page 36 :This process, known as "regulatory capture," turns regulators from watchdogs into lapdogs .
Translations
small dog suited to resting in its master's lap
Catalan: gos falder m
Chinese:
Mandarin: 寵物狗 / 宠物狗 ( chǒngwù gǒu ) , 小狗 (zh) ( xiǎogǒu )
Dutch: schoothond (nl) m , schoothondje (nl) n
Esperanto: dorlothundo
Finnish: sylikoira (fi)
French: chien-chien (fr) m , bichon (fr) m , chien de salon m , chien de manchon (fr) m
German: Schoßhund (de) m , Schoßhündin f , Schoßhündchen (de) n
Greek: σκυλάκι (el) n ( skyláki )
Hindi: छोटा कुत्ता m ( choṭā kuttā )
Hungarian: öleb (hu)
Icelandic: kjöltuhundur m
Irish: measán m
Japanese: ラップ・ドッグ ( rappu doggu )
Latvian: klēpja sunītis (lv) m
Malay: anjing riba
Norwegian:
Bokmål: skjødehund (no) m
Nynorsk: skjødehund m
Polish: pies pokojowy m , kanapowiec (pl) m
Portuguese: cão de colo m
Russian: ко́мнатная соба́чка f ( kómnatnaja sobáčka )
Scottish Gaelic: measan m
Spanish: perro faldero (es) m , perrito faldero (es) m
Swedish: knähund (sv) c
Welsh: ci anwes m , ci arffed m
person who behaves in a servile manner
— see sycophant