The Collaborative International Dictionary
Pariah \Pa"ri*ah\, n. [From Tamil paraiyan, pl. paraiyar, one of the low caste, fr. parai a large drum, because they beat the drums at certain festivals.]
One of an aboriginal people of Southern India, regarded by the four castes of the Hindus as of very low grade. They are usually the serfs of the Sudra agriculturalists. See Caste.
--Balfour (Cyc. of India).-
An outcast; one despised by society.
Pariah dog (Zo["o]l.), a mongrel race of half-wild dogs which act as scavengers in Oriental cities.
Pariah kite (Zo["o]l.), a species of kite ( Milvus govinda) which acts as a scavenger in India.
Wiktionary
n. One of a race of half-wild mongrel dogs which act as scavengers in Oriental cities.
WordNet
Wikipedia
In ecology, the term pariah dog refers to free-ranging dogs that occupy an ecological niche based on waste from human settlements. When used in this manner, the term describes a large percentage of dogs worldwide, especially in developing countries, Eastern Europe and the Balkans.
While most pariah dogs are free-ranging, not all free-ranging dogs are genetically pariah dogs. Though they are "outcasts" in the social sense, and thus may still be called pariahs by observers who are not cynologists, feral dogs may be of any or mixed breeds. Individual dogs may be stray pets, descended from strays, or from litters abandoned by owners. They may live in packs, pairs, or singly.
All authentic strains of pariah dogs are at risk of losing their genetic uniqueness by interbreeding with purebred and mixed-breed strays. To prevent this from happening, some strains of pariah dogs are becoming formally recognized, registered, and pedigreed as breeds in order to preserve the pure type.
Usage examples of "pariah dog".
In the central square, dominated by a plaster fountain decorated with faces from which all feature had eroded, a pariah dog with a pelt the color of blanched almonds was poking about for bugs in a patch of sere grass.
Hendrick glimpsed their dark shapes as the Ford bumped and pitched over the rough track between the shanties and shacks and the headlights swung aimlessly back and forth illuminating little cameo scenes: a group of black children stoning a pariah dog.
Varshakara spat a wad of crimson betel juice at a pariah dog, staining the creature’.
I felt a pang of shame when I saw how neglected it was, the graves untended, the weedy ground showing the tracks of goat and donkey, jackal and pariah dog.
It was easy to see why Ghilardi had been treated like a pariah dog by his peers.
But not before his father's body was thrown there first, with less ceremony than if it had been the carcass of a pariah dog, then covered with the trash that had been his possessions and pride.
Apart from the universal condemnation, we will become the pariah dog, the outcasts of the world.