see a man about a dog
see a man about a horse

"I got to go see a man about a dog."

"let's say we have to see a man about a dog."

"I had to see a man about a dog," Tom said with a smile as he sat down beside her.

"Sorry I'm late, had to see a man about a dog.

On our last afternoon we went back to Tromsø to see a man about a dog.

See a man about a dog.

'Gotta go see a man about a dog at the week-end.

Shake the dew off the lily, see a man about a dog When everyone's drunk, it's condensing the fog.

(Though listeners who remember the first Streets album might be amused to hear that this time, he really does see a man about a dog.)

In the North East, Newcastle Brown Ale is often given the nickname, "Dog", alluding to the British euphemism of seeing a man about a dog.

Trippy had already gone - to see a man about a dog, down Tottenham Court Road, he said - and Bunny had found the other two Mother Christmasses.

"Told you I couldn't stay a minute-got to do a flit-'see a man about a dog', you know-came a million parsecs to squeeze you, mums, but it was worth it-clear ether!"

Their dialect reflected their promiscuity and drinking habits; "I have to go see a man about a dog" often meant going to buy whiskey, and a "handcuff" or "manacle" was an engagement or wedding ring.

'First, I'm going to the nearest apothecary,' said William, 'and then I'm going to drop in at my lodgings for that key, and then . . . I'm going to see a man about a dog.'

British English uses "going to see my aunt", "going to see a man about a dog", "to piddle", "to splash (one's) boots", as well as "to have a slash", which originates from the Scottish term for a large splash of liquid.

The earliest confirmed publication is the 1866 Dion Boucicault play Flying Scud in which a character knowingly breezes past a difficult situation saying, "Excuse me Mr. Quail, I can't stop; I've got to see a man about a dog."

The book's landscape and cast of characters are so selectively delineated that each of these forays has the mythic quality of a major undertaking, even on the journey about which "Uncle Al would say only that they were going to see a man about a dog."

The Honest Jakes or Privy has graduated via Offices to the final horror of Toilet..." There are any number of lengthier periphrases for excretion used to excuse oneself from company, such as to powder one's nose, to see a man about a dog (or horse).

To see a man about a dog or To see a man about a horse is an English language colloquialism, usually used as a way to say one needs to apologize for one's imminent departure or absence - generally euphemistically to conceal one's true purpose, such as going to use the toilet or going to buy a drink.