English edit

Etymology edit

From band +‎ dog.

Pronunciation edit

  • (UK) IPA(key): /ˈbandɒɡ/
  • (file)

Noun edit

bandog (plural bandogs)

  1. (archaic) A dog that has been tied up; a mastiff or other kind of guard dog.
  2. (specifically) A type of large, ferocious dog, bred by crossing American pit bull terriers with Neapolitan mastiffs.
  3. (figurative, literary) Something that or someone who pursues doggedly.
    • 1938, Norman Lindsay, Age of Consent, 1st Australian edition, Sydney, N.S.W.: Ure Smith, published 1962, →OCLC, page 89:
      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 ego.
  4. (obsolete, slang, cant) A bailiff or prison guard.

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