dogleg

1 of 3

adjective

dog·​leg ˈdȯg-ˌleg 

-ˌlāg

: crooked or bent like a dog's hind leg

a sharp dogleg bend in the fairway

dogleg

2 of 3

noun

1

a

: something having an abrupt angle

b

: a sharp bend (as in a road)

2

: a golf hole having an angled fairway

dogleg

3 of 3

verb

doglegged; doglegging; doglegs

intransitive verb

: to proceed along a dogleg course

the single narrow street that doglegs through town

—Russ Leadabrand

Examples of dogleg in a Sentence

Noun

a sharp dogleg to the left

Recent Examples on the Web

Noun

The threats are numerous: soaring cliffs, towers of brittle ice, 8 percent grades, unexpected doglegs. —Leath Tonino, Outside Online, 23 Feb. 2017

Relaxing outside is hazard-free—a bundle of trees and a slight dogleg in the 3rd-hole fairway provide protection from wayward balls. —Spencer Elliott, Forbes, 9 Sep. 2024

Verb

In the days leading up to the storm’s landfall, weather nerds had been freaking out about its anticipated inland track (such systems typically dogleg back out to the Atlantic) and collision with an extratropical cyclone. —Nick Heil, Outside Online, 25 June 2013

Dorian doglegged north along the state’s Atlantic coast and barely tousled Floridians, but the storm’s costs for electric utilities were still significant as the price of living in the nation’s most hurricane-prone state. —Kevin Spear, orlandosentinel.com, 18 Nov. 2019

Word History

First Known Use

Adjective

1671, in the meaning defined above

Noun

1803, in the meaning defined at sense 1a

Verb

1940, in the meaning defined above