单词 | to try it on the dog |
释义 | > as lemmasto try it on the (or a) dog e. To test the effect of (a thing) on (a person, thing, etc.). to try it on the (or a) dog: to test the effectiveness of something on someone regarded as being of lesser consequence than those for whom it is ultimately intended; Theatre, to test the possibilities of a play, etc., by performing it as a matinée or before a provincial audience. colloquial (originally U.S.). ΘΚΠ society > leisure > the arts > performance arts > the theatre or the stage > [verb (intransitive)] > test performance to try it on the (or a) dog1878 the world > action or operation > endeavour > trial or experiment > try experiments or make experiment [verb (intransitive)] > make trial run of something to dip one's toe in (the water)1901 to try it on the (or a) dog1903 the world > action or operation > endeavour > trial or experiment > make experiment of or with [verb (transitive)] > a thing on (a person or thing) try1922 1878 Chicago Tribune 14 July 10/2 Mr. Pearson said: ‘Don't tell any of the newspaper men here about this [i.e. playing Falstaff]. I am just going to try it on a dog.’ 1890 A. Barrère & C. G. Leland Dict. Slang II. 377/1 Bootle's Baby’ will on the 7th of May be produced somewhere in the provinces. This is what the Americans call trying it on a dog. 1897 Daily Tel. 4 Feb. 9/1 If any enterprising person desires to make money from a play or a composition of music he does not boldly attempt the experiment upon the public. His shrewd suspicion that they would avenge the torture induces him to adopt the preliminary precaution of ‘trying it on the dog’—a creature of delicate susceptibilities, and very amenable to the influences of Teutonic bands and street-corner cornet solos. 1903 [see sense 15b]. 1922 H. Crane Let. 29 Sept. (1965) 101 I want to try Dial [a literary review] on ‘F and H’, before it goes anywhere else. 1941 G. Heyer Envious Casca xiv. 261 Mathilda had never felt less inclined to listen to a dissertation on the benefits of experience to an actress, and she very rudely told Paula to try it on the dog. < as lemmas |
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