Question

Dog's Life a bleak, harsh, terrible existence without much happiness or freedom

Accepted Answer

Poor Mrs. Youngman. With that miserable job and those screaming children, she leads a dog's life. Erasmus, a Dutch scholar and theologian, used this expression in his writings around 1542. Today there is a great effort to treat dogs humanely, so many dogs lead good lives. But dogs generally don't live as well as people. In some countries dogs are not kept as pets, and, in fact, it is common to eat them. So this expression has come to mean leading a poor or unhappy life.

Idiom	Dog's Life
Example	Poor Mrs. Youngman. With that miserable job and those screaming children, she leads a dog's life.
Meaning	a bleak, harsh, terrible existence without much happiness or freedom
Origin	Erasmus, a Dutch scholar and theologian, used this expression in his writings around 1542. Today there is a great effort to treat dogs humanely, so many dogs lead good lives. But dogs generally don't live as well as people. In some countries dogs are not kept as pets, and, in fact, it is common to eat them. So this expression has come to mean leading a poor or unhappy life.

Dogs Dog's Life Poor Expression Mrs Youngman Miserable