bandog

Noun

bandog (plural bandogs)

1. (archaic) A dog that has been tied up; a mastiff or other kind of guard dog.
   • The horsemen spreading themselves along the side of the cover, waited untill the keeper entered, leading his ban-dog; a large blood-hound tied in a leam or band, from which he takes his name.1808, Joseph Strutt, [Walter Scott], “Section [IX]. Chapter II.”, in [Walter Scott], editor, Queenhoo-Hall, a Romance: And Ancient Times, a Drama. […], volume IV, Edinburgh: […] [James Ballantyne &...
   • Patriots may smile; and, using him [ Jean-Paul Marat ] as bandog now to be muzzled, now to be let bark....1837, Thomas Carlyle, The French Revolution: A History […], volume (please specify |volume=I to III), London: Chapman and Hall, →OCLC, (please specify the book or page number)
2. (specifically) A type of large, ferocious dog, bred by crossing American pit bull terriers with Neapolitan mastiffs.
3. (figuratively, literary) Something that or someone who pursues doggedly.
   • He escaped from that experience confounded, horrified, and conscious of degradation. Those infernal bandogs of the law had treated him as a piece of insensate property to their drivelling mumbo-jumbo, as if mere contact with it had robbed him of all rights to the dignity and integrity of his own...1938, Norman Lindsay, Age of Consent, 1st Australian edition, Sydney, N.S.W.: Ure Smith, published 1962, →OCLC, page 89
4. (obsolete, slang, cant) A bailiff or prison guard.
5. A despicable person; a reprobate.
   • ‘For what cess or tallage comes these bandogs to Fitz Peascod Castle?’1936, Norman Lindsay, The Flyaway Highway, Sydney: Angus and Robertson, page 93