Definition of "fox terrier" [fox terrier]

• Any of various small terriers of a breed originating in England, having a white coat with dark markings and developed in both wire-haired and smooth-coated varieties. They were formerly used to drive foxes out of hiding. (noun)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "As they entered, a wire-haired fox terrier of irreproachable breeding, rose from the hearth-rug and came to meet them with leisurely dignity."
• ""Nor little Possums," she hurried on, nodding her head and reaching out a caressing hand to where the fox terrier was ecstatically gnawing a deer-rib."
• "His old friends had given him the odd nickname Bobschiess [Shooting Bob] on account … of his likeness to his fox terrier which he was fond of provoking to bite his friends’ trousers.”"