Dogged means refusing to give up, however hard it gets. Slow, stubborn, and still going.
It is a compliment, and it praises persistence rather than brilliance, so dogged determination and a dogged refusal to be beaten are both admiring. The pronunciation is two syllables, which catches people out, since it is not the past tense of dog. That past tense exists and means followed persistently, as in dogged by bad luck, and it is pronounced as one syllable. The adverb doggedly means with unyielding persistence.
1adjectivedoggedPersistent and refusing to give up.
“It took dogged patience to get the answer.”
Middle English
dogged
English, today
dogged
Built from
From Middle English dogged, doggid, doggyd (“characteristics similar to that of a dog”), equivalent to dog + ed.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA