A dog kept to guard a house, property, etc., and give warning of the approach of intruders.
1610. Shaks., Temp., I. ii. 383. Harke, harke, bowgh wawgh: the watch-Dogges barke, bowgh-wawgh.
1770. Goldsm., Des. Vill., 121. The watch-dog’s voice that bayed the whispering wind.
1818. Byron, Juan, I. cxxiii. ’Tis sweet to hear the watch-dog’s honest bark Bay deep-mouth’d welcome as we draw near home.
1876. Bancroft, Hist. U.S., III. xv. 235. The baying of a watch-dog alarmed the village.
1894. Fenn, In Alpine Valley, I. 120. The old man is as fierce as a watch-dog.
b. fig. and in fig. context.
1845. Maurice, Moral Philos., in Encycl. Metrop., II. 595/1. Now we feel the necessity for a set of guardians or watch-dogs of the state.
1885. Lowell, Democr., etc. (1887), 114. Formerly the duty of a librarian was considered too much that of a watch-dog, to keep people as much as possible away from the books.
1910. Ld. Rosebery, Chatham, xvi. 339. The Chancellor acted as his watch-dog in front of the Treasury.
c. quasi-adj. Characteristic of a watch-dog.
1862. Helps, Organiz. Daily Life, 32. He was not a very skilful person in deciding upon difficult questions; but he had a sort of watch-dog carefulness.
