bird-dog

noun

one of any of various breeds of dogs trained to hunt or retrieve birds.

Informal. a person hired to locate special items or people, especially a talent scout who seeks out promising athletes.

Slang. a person who steals another person's date.

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Origin:
1885–90, Americanism

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Bird-dog is one of our favorite verbs.

So is fletcherise. Does it mean:

to steal or take dishonestly (money, esp. public funds, or property entrusted to one's care); embezzle.

to chew (food) slowly and thoroughly.

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Dictionary.com Unabridged

verb (used with object) Informal.

to follow, watch carefully, or investigate.

to seek out.

verb (used without object)

Informal. to follow or watch carefully.

Slang. to steal or attempt to steal another person's date.

Origin:
v. use of bird dog

Link To bird-dog

Slang Dictionary

bird-dog definition

tv.
to take away another man's girlfriend. : Why'd you have to go and bird-dog me, your best buddy?
tv.
to supervise someone; to tail someone. : Marlowe knew somebody was bird-dogging him, but he was too smart to show it.

Dictionary of American Slang and Colloquial Expressions by Richard A. Spears.Fourth Edition.
Copyright 2007. Published by McGraw Hill.
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Matching Quote

"Sometimes we met a wrecker with his cart and dog,—and his dog's faint bark at us wayfarers, heard through the roaring of the surf, sounded ridiculously faint. To see a little trembling dainty-footed cur stand on the margin of the ocean, and ineffectually bark at a beach-bird, amid the roar of the Atlantic! Come with design to bark at a whale, perchance! That sound will do for farmyards. All the dogs looked out of place there, naked and as if shuddering at the vastness; and I thought that they would not have been there had it not been for the countenance of their masters. Still less could you think of a cat bending her steps that way, and shaking her wet foot over the Atlantic; yet even this happens sometimes, they tell me."

-Henry David Thoreau