dog whistle

noun

variants or less commonly dog-whistle

ˈdȯg-ˈ(h)wi-səl 

1

: a whistle to call or direct a dog

especially : one sounding at a frequency inaudible to the human ear

2

politics : an expression or statement that has a secondary meaning intended to be understood only by a particular group of people

Democrats and liberals sometimes have gone to ridiculous lengths to portray speech by Republicans and conservatives as dog whistles responsible for inciting unstable people to carry out violent acts …

—The Columbus (Ohio) Dispatch

… habitually inserts dog-whistles into his speeches to motivate evangelical voters.

—The Economist

—often used before another noun

That is the fundamental perversity of 'dog whistle politics', whereby political parties send coded messages that will be heard one way by their core supporters and another way altogether by others.

—Robert E. Goodin

Examples of dog whistle in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

To momentarily curb his prefab MAGA scriptures and racist dog whistles, Trump needed to exit the realm of the overtly political—which, apparently, meant sitting with a giggly, goateed standup comedian. —Brady Brickner-Wood, The New Yorker, 10 Oct. 2024

Is that a dog whistle back to Vance’s racist falsehoods that Haitian immigrants in Springfield, Ohio, are eating people’s pets — which Trump also brought up at the debate? —Anita Chabria, Los Angeles Times, 12 Sep. 2024

Both assertions are about putting women and minorities in their place with venomous dog whistles of resentment and rancor that ring clearly in the ears of a certain set of voters, ones that have long made up Trump’s most loyal following — angry young white men. —Anita Chabria, Los Angeles Times, 13 Aug. 2024

Trump and other prominent Republicans are the most public offenders, with Harris’s supporters accusing them of intentionally bungling the pronunciation or using it as a racist dog whistle about the first Black woman and the first Asian American woman named to a major party’s ticket. —Meryl Kornfield, Washington Post, 25 July 2024

Word History

First Known Use

1801, in the meaning defined at sense 1