Noun

(-)

The quality of being a dog.

* 2001 , Simone Santini, Exploratory Image Databases: Content-Based Retrieval (page 28)

The signifier dog'' does not signify "dogness" by virtue of some connection with the signified of dogness , but by its differential relation with other signifiers, like ''cat'', ''cow'', ''house , and so on.

Noun

(es)

(rare) A female dog.

* 1856 , in Pictures of Comical People, with Stories about Them , page 158:

The sound even called back the departing senses of the dying doggess . She drew me to her with her paws, and made an effort to lick me. The action quite melted me.

(uncommon, offensive) (A very insulting term for) a woman.

* {{quote-news, year=2007, date=August 7, author=Michael M. Grynbaum, title=It’s a Female Dog, or Worse. Or Endearing. And Illegal?, work=New York Times citation

, passage=Ten rappers were cited in the legislation, along with an excerpt from an 1811 dictionary that defined the word as “A she dog, or doggess ; the most offensive appellation that can be given to an English woman.”}}

* 2011 , in Sense and Sensuality: Erotic Fantasies in the World of Jane Austen , page 13:

She snatched up the spellbook, tucked it into her reticule, and turned back to-ward the house. “I shall leave you to find your own way home.” “Mar-all!” The demon shouted at her back. “Doggess ! You'll not be rid of me so easy!”