How to Use top dog in a Sentence

top dog

noun
  • White sharks have been the top dog.
    — Michael H Gavshon, CBS News, 12 Apr. 2026
  • Are some of the top dogs struggling?
    — Andrew Greif, NBC news, 12 June 2026
  • New York is used to playing the role of top dog.
    — Jacob Feldman, Sportico.com, 11 June 2026
  • To get back on top, the Chiefs will have to knock off the top dogs.
    — Pete Grathoff, Kansas City Star, 8 May 2026
  • The top dogs on each team, the two Jalens, have both struggled.
    — Fred Katz, New York Times, 27 Apr. 2026
  • Scroll through the gallery below to see health issues that plague top dog breeds.
    — William Axford, Houston Chronicle, 6 June 2018
  • There's a new top dog with a Best in Show title.
    — Kelli Bender, People.com, 31 Aug. 2025
  • In the match of the event, the pairs went five games before the top dogs took the title.
    — Todd Boss, Forbes, 10 Mar. 2025
  • Plusquellic was top dog in Akron and worked to steady the city in big and small ways.
    — Mary Kilpatrick, cleveland, 22 Dec. 2019
  • But top dog, Coach Reeve, makes sure that order stays in line.
    — Kent Youngblood, Star Tribune, 16 Feb. 2021
  • Your final choice of a top dog and a top cat will be featured in a story.
    — Howard Cohen, Miami Herald, 20 Oct. 2025
  • Just wait until the top dogs get going again, which is all but inevitable.
    — Daniel Nugent-Bowman, New York Times, 2 May 2025
  • Trump, of course, can’t abide being anything other than the top dog.
    — David Lauter, Los Angeles Times, 19 Oct. 2024
  • Most have been the top dog on their high school team, and certainly in middle school.
    — oregonlive, 19 Mar. 2021
  • From that point on, mainstream hip hop had a new top dog and one with a serious bite.
    — Troy L. Smith, cleveland, 13 Apr. 2021
  • Pet lovers will then vote to narrow the pool of 10 top dogs to a final three.
    — Kelli Bender, PEOPLE, 25 June 2026
  • Law Murray has his latest rankings and a new top dog.
    — Zach Harper, New York Times, 17 Feb. 2026
  • Surely there’s a reason why these pint-sized pets are willing to bark and bite to be seen as top dog.
    — Marisa Sloan, Discover Magazine, 23 June 2023
  • The same goes for mountain lions, which are currently the top dog, so to speak.
    — Lila Seidman, Los Angeles Times, 30 Nov. 2024
  • Here is a look at other top dogs that have, at one point, sniffed around the White House.
    — Kasondra Van Treeck, chicagotribune.com, 24 July 2019
  • Gets a small walk-on role and understudies the lead, and then the top dog loses his voice.
    — Neil Senturia, San Diego Union-Tribune, 14 Apr. 2025
  • Trump was top dog, of course, without whom nothing was possible.
    — Literary Hub, 29 Apr. 2026
  • This marks the first time the Tigers have entered the postseason as the sport’s top dog.
    — Caroline Price, Forbes.com, 2 Apr. 2025
  • On the cattle drives of the Old West, the cook was top dog of the chuck wagon.
    — Vincent T. Davis, ExpressNews.com, 15 Feb. 2020
  • This nutcracker, though, is the top dog of all nutcrackers.
    — Nellah Bailey McGough, Southern Living, 10 Dec. 2025
  • But, for the price, performance, smart features, and ease of use, this litter box is the top dog.
    — Katherine Alex Beaven, Peoplemag, 10 Nov. 2023
  • The top dogs, or favorites, are expected to succeed.
    — Charlotte Harpur, New York Times, 3 June 2026
  • For decades, Canada has been the top dog of Olympic women's ice hockey.
    — Becky Sullivan, NPR, 19 Feb. 2026
  • God, baseball movies have been extinct for so long, but Bull Durham is the top dog for me in terms of tone.
    — Brian Davids, The Hollywood Reporter, 16 Mar. 2022
  • Being the underdog and the top dog is part of every sport, but in tennis, the status is not fixed.
    — Charlotte Harpur, New York Times, 3 June 2026

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'top dog.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

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