retriever

/rɪˈtrivər/

/rɪˈtrivə/

Other forms: retrievers

If your dog brings back anything you throw for her, she's a retriever. Many retrievers are bred to work alongside hunters, fetching game birds.

Even if your pup looks more like a mop than a Labrador retriever, you can still describe him as a retriever if he's intent on recovering every tennis ball you hurl across your yard. A retriever is a person or animal that retrieves things, or brings them back. So, strictly speaking, you're a retriever too, if you grab the runaway balls during your friends' tennis match! Retriever derives from the French verb trouver, "to find."

Definitions of retriever

1. noun

   a dog with heavy water-resistant coat that can be trained to retrieve game
   types:

   flat-coated retriever

   an English breed having a shiny black or liver-colored coat; retrieves game from land or water

   curly-coated retriever

   an English breed having a tightly curled black or liver-colored coat; retrieves game from land or water

   golden retriever

   an English breed having a long silky golden coat

   Labrador retriever

   breed originally from Labrador having a short black or golden-brown coat

   Chesapeake Bay retriever

   American breed having a short thick oily coat ranging from brown to light tan

   type of:

   gun dog, sporting dog

   a dog trained to work with sportsmen when they hunt with guns