Hangdog

Full definition of hangdog

Noun

1. A base, degraded person; a sneak; a gallows bird.

Adjective

1. Low; sneaking; ashamed.
• ?, ThackerayThe poor colonel went out of the room with a hangdog look.
• 1951, Isaac Asimov, (1974 publication), part V: “The Merchant Princes”, chapter 16, page 180, ¶ 6Asper Argo, the Well-Beloved, Commdor of the Korellian Republic greeted his wife’s entry by a hangdog lowering of his scanty eyebrows. To her at least, his self-adopted epithet did not apply. Even he knew that.