English

Noun

hair of the dog ‎(uncountable)

1. (idiomatic) An alcoholic drink, particularly when taken the morning after to cure a hangover.

   I'll be right back. I just need a little hair of the dog what bit me.

   • 1818, Sir Walter Scott, Rob Roy, ch. 12:

     But with the morning cool repentance came. I felt, in the keenest manner, the violence and absurdity of my conduct, and was obliged to confess that wine and passion had lowered my intellects. . . . I descended to the breakfast hall, like a criminal to receive sentence. . . . [H]e poured out a large bumper of brandy, exhorting me to swallow "a hair of the dog that had bit me."

   • 1841, Charles Dickens, Barnaby Rudge, ch. 52:

     Ha ha! Put a good face upon it, and drink again. Another hair of the dog that bit you, captain!

Derived terms

• pelt of the dog (rare, humorous)

See also

• see a man about a dog

Translations

References

1. ↑ Hair of the dog on MedTerms
2. ↑ Brewer’s Dictionary of Phrase and Fable (1898): “In Scotland it is a popular belief that a few hairs of the dog that bit you applied to the wound will prevent evil consequences. Applied to drinks, it means, if overnight you have indulged too freely, take a glass of the same wine next morning to soothe the nerves. ‘If this dog do you bite, soon as out of your bed, take a hair of the tail in the morning.’”
3. ↑ "Poil de ce chien" in François Rabelais' 16th century pentology La Vie de Gargantua et Pantagruel, Book 5, Chapter XLVI
4. ↑ KTU means “Keilalphabetische Texte aus Ugaric” (Cuneiform Alphabet Text from Ugarit)
5. ↑ W.M. Schniedewind, J.H. Hunt, A Primer on Ugaritic, p. 121. Cambridge University Press, 2007. ISBN 0521704936.