From Longman Dictionary of Contemporary Englishdugoutdug‧out /ˈdʌɡaʊt/ noun [countable] 1 DSa low shelter at the side of a sports field, where players and team officials sit2 PMAa shelter dug into the ground for soldiers to use → trench3 TTWa small boat made by cutting out a hollow space in a tree trunk a dugout canoe
Examples from the Corpus
dugout• After organising a group of locals and a dugout canoe, we set out on the week-long journey to Iau.• Watch any game in a crucial situation and you will see the catcher peering into his dugout before calling each pitch.• In the field we live in the same dugouts, wash in the same puddles.• At one point, Darryl Strawberry emerged from the dugout with a bat in his hands.• As Hall departed for the dressing room, incensed Everton boss Howard Kendall gave him a tongue-lashing from the dugout.• They gave him a standing ovation from the dugout and promised to present him with the game ball.• Towards midnight Weir came to the dugout.• More often, though, they miss, hang a hard left, and return to the dugout. 