Meaning & use
doggy paddle
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Meanings
noununcountable
A simple way of swimming by moving your hands and feet quickly up and down under the water, like a dog.
Grammar: Use it without 'a' or a plural: 'She can do doggy paddle.' Not 'a doggy paddle' when talking about the style in general.
Patterns
- do the doggy paddle
- swim using the doggy paddle
- learn the doggy paddle
My little brother can't swim properly yet, so he just does the doggy paddle.
The doggy paddle kept her head above the water until the teacher arrived.
At first we taught the children the doggy paddle, then the front crawl.
verbintransitiveinformal
To swim by moving your hands and feet quickly up and down, like a dog.
Grammar: No object: you doggy-paddle across the pool, not doggy-paddle the pool. Often used in the -ing form.
Patterns
- doggy-paddle across something
- doggy-paddle to somewhere
- go doggy-paddling
He doggy-paddled across the shallow end of the pool.
We doggy-paddled to the side and climbed out.
She was doggy-paddling around the lake, laughing.
Word forms
| third person singular | doggy-paddles |
|---|---|
| past tense | doggy-paddled |
| past participle | doggy-paddled |
| -ing form | doggy-paddling |
Common combinations
- do the doggy paddle
- The instructor asked the class to do the doggy paddle for one minute.
- learn the doggy paddle
- Most children learn the doggy paddle before any other stroke.
- doggy-paddle across the pool
- He doggy-paddled across the pool to reach his towel.
- keep your head above water with the doggy paddle
- Beginners can keep their head above water with the doggy paddle.
Synonyms and how they differ
- crawl
- This is a fast, proper racing stroke, not a beginner's method, so it is not a true synonym.
- breaststroke
- This is a formal swimming stroke with a set arm and leg action, unlike the loose movement of the doggy paddle.
Word family
- doggy-paddling noun
- The activity of swimming in this way.
Commonly confused: doggy paddle or dog paddle?
doggy paddle vs dog paddle
This is a less common spelling of the same idea, but 'doggy paddle' is the usual form in British English.
Practice
Which sentence uses 'doggy paddle' correctly?
Choose one answer.
'Do the doggy paddle' is the fixed phrase for this swimming style, so the definite article 'the' is needed. 'A doggy paddle' sounds like one single paddle stroke, and 'doggy paddles' wrongly makes it countable.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “doggy paddle”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.