puppy

Someone who thinks, speaks, or acts in an aberrant, perverse, sadistic, or gruesome manner. You'd have to be a sick puppy to enjoy a movie as graphic and brutal as that. Whoever did this to these poor animals is one sick puppy, all right.

A TV program that airs on Animal Planet on the afternoon of Super Bowl Sunday. Puppies play on a mock football field, and kittens take the field for the "Kitten Halftime Show." The animals shown are usually available for adoption. Who cares about the Super Bowl—when is Puppy Bowl on?

Fig. mild infatuation; infatuation as in a crush. (Used especially of adolescent relationships.) Is it really love or just puppy love? Look at them together. It may be puppy love, but it looks wonderful.

fat that a child has but which they lose when they become older He's a little overweight but that's just puppy fat.

romantic love which a young person feels for someone and which usually disappears as they become older At the time I was sure I would marry him when I grew up but of course it was just puppy love.

Also, calf love. Adolescent love or infatuation, especially one that is not expected to last, as in Beth is besotted with him, but we think it's just puppy love, or He's got a bad case of calf love. [First half of 1800s]

A juvenile crush, an infatuation. The phrase refers to an adolescent male's total devotion to the object of his affection by displaying the uncritical ardor of a young dog to its owner. “Mooning over” and “calf eyes” are apt phrases for such an affliction. The 1960s teen singing idol Neil Sedaka had a hit record of a song by that name.