# what is the origin of "sick as a dog"?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-origin-of-sick-as-a-dog/270360>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [October 21, 2004, 6:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-origin-of-sick-as-a-dog/270360 "2004-10-21T06:40:14Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![imafunguy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/977dab/32.png) [@imafunguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/imafunguy)\
**Post date:** [October 21, 2004, 6:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-origin-of-sick-as-a-dog/270360/1 "2004-10-21T06:40:14Z")

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Hopefully you can fill me in on this question that has bothered me for years.  
I’ve asked many people in the past and nobody has ever been able to give it a logical explanation. Hopefully my quest is over. Thanks for your time.

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**Author:** ![Colophon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f05b48/32.png) [@Colophon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colophon)\
**Post date:** [October 21, 2004, 10:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-origin-of-sick-as-a-dog/270360/2 "2004-10-21T10:53:32Z")

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[Michael Quinion](http://www.worldwidewords.org/qa/qa-sic1.htm) has some fairly vague theories. I’ve always understood it to be a British phrase. You have to understand that it in this country, when we say “sick” we normally mean what I believe Americans would call “sick to one’s stomach”, i.e. liable to vomit.

We don’t generally say somebody is “sick with a cold”, say - we’d say instead that they were “ill”.

So “sick as a dog” to me means vomiting violently such as a dog might after it’s polished off a large box of liqueur chocolates…

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**Author:** ![Colophon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f05b48/32.png) [@Colophon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colophon)\
**Post date:** [October 21, 2004, 10:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-origin-of-sick-as-a-dog/270360/3 "2004-10-21T10:56:21Z")

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A bit more Googling dug up this [Word Detective](http://www.word-detective.com/061202.html#sickasadog) column. This backs up my comments about “sick” versus “ill”:

> [@](#):
>
> And while Americans may consider themselves “sick” when they have a bad cold, in Britain that would be called “feeling ill.” “Being sick” in Britain usually means “to vomit.”
> 
> So to really appreciate the original sense of “sick as a dog,” imagine yourself seated in the parlor having tea with the Vicar on a lovely Sunday afternoon, when Fido staggers in from a meal of sun-dried woodchuck and expresses his unease all over your heirloom oriental carpet. It’s actually rather amazing that goldfish aren’t more popular.