Feline is an adjective meaning "cat like". Then is there an adjective meaning "dog like"?
2 Answers
"Canine", or if you want to be infuriatingly erudite, you could use the noun "canid" in a metaphorical sense.
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Sorry, you beat me, I didn't see your answer when I was posting mine. Sep 2, 2011 at 3:09
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2Forgive me for being pedantic, but canine is actually a subset of canid. Canines are dogs and wolves, canids include vulpines which are foxes. (From the fox avatar, you may understand why I like to make this distinction.)– Kit Z. Fox ♦Sep 2, 2011 at 3:14
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1LOL! Yes, that is probably true in scientific discourse, but i'm sure the word "canine" came before the zoological category "canine". Sep 2, 2011 at 3:18
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2@KitΘδς ...and
lupine
would be wolf-like. It can be used in many of the same situations as "canine" and is a bit more commonly used this way, but implies a look that is a bit more serious or deadly.– T.E.D.Sep 2, 2011 at 13:58 -
So if you have lupine for wolves and vulpine for foxes but both of these along with dogs are also canines then there isn't a word for dog-like?– mgbSep 2, 2011 at 15:55
Canine.
http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/canine
canine adj 1: of or resembling that of a dog 2: of or relating to dogs or to the family (Canidae) including the canids