Glossary entry for
dog in the manger
From Brewer's Dictionary of Phrase & Fable:
A mean-spirited individual who will not use what is wanted by another, nor
yet let the other have it to use; one who prevents another enjoying
something without any benefit to himself. The allusion is to the fable of
the dog that fixed his place in a manger and would not allow the ox to come
near the hay but would not eat it himself.
From The Dictionary of Cultural Literacy:
A person who spitefully refuses to let someone else benefit from something
for which he or she has no personal use: "We asked our neighbor for the
fence posts he had left over, but, like a dog in the manger, he threw them
out rather than give them to us." The phrase comes from one of Aesop's
fables, about a dog lying in a manger full of hay. When an ox tries to eat
some hay, the dog bites him, despite the fact that the hay is of no use to
the dog.
Contributed by Judy Kennedy
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