running dog

WordReference Random House Unabridged Dictionary of American English © 2026

run′ning dog′, [Disparaging.]

1. Slang Terms (esp. in Chinese Communist propaganda)
   • a person or institution subservient to counterrevolutionary interests.
   • a manipulable, servile follower;
     lackey:
     to be reviled as a running dog of the colonialists.
2. Architecture See Vitruvian scroll. 

• in political sense, translation of Chinese zǒugǒu 1925–30