bandog

plural bandogs · alternative band-dog · alternative ban dog

1. archaicA dog that has been tied up; a mastiff or other kind of guard dog.

   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 more examples

   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 & Co.] for John Murray, […]; and Archibald Constable & Co. […], →OCLC, pages 48–49

   The guns on the fortress responded, but the small calibre made them sound as if they were yapping like bandogs while the bombers bayed and gave tongue like hounds in cry.

   1982, Lawrence Durrell, Constance (Avignon Quintet), Faber & Faber, published 2004, page 934

2. specificallyA type of large, ferocious dog, bred by crossing American pit bull terriers with Neapolitan mastiffs.
3. figurativelyliterarySomething that or someone who pursues doggedly.

   1 more example

   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.

   1938, Norman Lindsay, Age of Consent, 1st Australian edition, Sydney, N.S.W.: Ure Smith, published 1962, →OCLC, page 89

4. obsoleteslangcantA 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