hair of the dog that bit you

the hair of the dog (that bit you)

An alcoholic drink consumed to remedy a hangover. The phrase comes from the notion that literally rubbing the hair of the dog that bit you on the wound would help it to heal. Wow, all that beer has left me feeling terrible this morning. The only cure is the hair of the dog, I guess!
See also: bit, dog, hair, of
Farlex Dictionary of Idioms.

hair of the dog that bit you

Whatever made you ill used as a remedy, especially alcohol as a hangover cure. For example, A little hair of the dog will cure that hangover in no time. This expression, already a proverb in John Heywood's 1546 compendium, is based on the ancient folk treatment for dogbite of putting a burnt hair of the dog on the wound. It is often shortened, as in the example.
See also: bit, dog, hair, of, that
The American Heritage® Dictionary of Idioms by Christine Ammer.

hair of the dog that bit you

More alcohol to counteract the effects of a hangover. Most ancient civilizations and many modern ones believed that the most effective cure for a dog bite was a bundle of the canine's hair tied inside or around the wound. On the same theory that the injury's cause could also be the cure came the metaphor for taking a drink of alcohol to lessen, if not eliminate, the discomfort of “the morning after.” There's some truth to the idea: a Bloody Mary, Screwdriver, and another alcoholic beverage will take the edge off your hangover by making you drunk (or drunker) again, but alas, another slug of the demon rum won't cure the underlying problem, and at some point the piper will have to be paid.
See also: bit, dog, hair, of, that
Endangered Phrases by Steven D. Price
See also:
  • hair of the dog
  • hair of the dog that bit
  • a hair of the dog
  • the hair of the dog
  • the hair of the dog (that bit you)
  • bite the dog that bit you
  • bighead
  • polish up
  • polished up
  • the bottle
References in periodicals archive
The magazine says that the "hair of the dog that bit you" may make you feel better for a little while but it is only postponing the inevitable.
TOP 10 HANGOVER CURES
THE Dutch courage didn't work, you're talking mumbo jumbo and even a hair of the dog that bit you has left you cheesed off ...
STEMS from the Medieval belief that that if you were bitten by a mad dog, a hair of the dog that bit you, laid across the wound, would heal it.
Cheesed off? Paint the town red before doing the Full Monty; LOW-DOWN ON CLASSIC CLICHES