A: Where is Xiao Ma? He didn’t come to the office today.

    B: He went to an ex-girlfriend’s wedding yesterday and got drunk. He is sick as a dog now.

    Note: “Sick as a dog,” means “extremely sick, usually including having an upset stomach.” The idiom dates back to at least the 17th century. It is simply a descriptive phrase. “Being sick” also means “to vomit.” As dogs are known for their frequent vomiting, it’s easy to see the connection. Interestingly, dogs have often been linked to things considered unpleasant or undesirable. Over the years they have had an incredibly bad press (think of dog tired, dog in the manger, dog’s breakfast, go to the dogs — dictionaries have long entries about all the ways that dog has been used in a negative sense).