Photo credit: redbrickpaper.co.uk
I have to admit I’ve cheated on this word, as I’ve heard it from my Russian friends (and was very ashamed to have never heard of it before, even though the meaning is not hard to guess). This happened when we went to a café, overestimated our stomach capacity and asked to take the leftovers with us.
I’ve looked up some more examples of this useful word and here they are:
– Whilst asking a waiter to bag up leftovers from a meal maybe common practice in the strange and exotic USA, Brits still have a curiously divided attitude to the doggy bag (redbrickpaper.co.uk).
– The fury we feel at a dreadful meal dissipates to nothing in the face of ‘Was everything OK for you?’ ‘Yes. Yes, great thanks. Can we just have the bill. Please?’ And it’s the same with doggy bags. We have a mortal fear of causing a scene (lovefood.com).
– The trick is not to over-order in the first place. However, I do ask for a doggy bag when I have too much curry (lovefood.com).
– There’s proper English-language service from the American owners and their staff, and the portions are often large enough to leave you completely stuffed, shamelessly clutching a doggy-bag of food for further feasting back home (The Guardian).
Confessions of the Linguistic Spy 