(Also 6 bold-dogge.) Often without hyphen (as one word) esp. in transf. uses. [f. BULL sb.1 + DOG; because used in bull-baiting, or ? from the shape of the head.
With the oldest spelling bolddogge, compare ‘Hic molossus, a bonddoge,’ a. 1500 in Wr.-Wülcker, 758.]
1. A dog of a bold and fierce breed, with large bull-head, short muzzle, strong muscular body of medium height, and short smooth hair, formerly much used for bull-baiting.
c. 1500. Cocke Lorelles B., 2. Than came one wt two bold-dogges at his tayle.
1752. Hume, Ess. & Treat. (1777), I. 216. The courage of bull-dogs and game-cocks seems peculiar to England.
1828. Scott, F. M. Perth, II. 279. What are the useful properties of this fellow Bonthron? Those of a bull-dog … he worries without barking.
1863. Kingsley, Water-bab., i. 5. He would be … a master sweep … and keep a white bull-dog with one grey ear.
b. attrib. and quasi-adj.
1855. Macaulay, Hist. Eng., IV. 588. That bulldog courage which flinches from no danger.
1871. Standard, 18 Jan. Can Paris wait even until the bull-dog spirit of this hard-dying chief is able once more to show itself?
c. transf. Applied to persons: One that possesses the obstinate courage of the bulldog. Hence Bulldoggy a., and Bulldogism (nonce-wds.).
1863. Kingsley, Water-bab., iv. 138. Tom was always a brave, determined little English bull-dog, who never knew when he was beaten.
1858. Chamb. Jrnl., X. 20. Tom … was an English youth of about my own age, but a great deal more bulldoggy.
1852. Savage, R. Medlicott, II. vi. (D.). He possessed the element of bulldogism also.
2. † A sheriff’s officer (obs.); one of the Proctors’ attendants at the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge. colloq.
1698. Farquhar, Love & Bottle, iii. 2. He would have put me off, so I sent for a couple of bull-dogs, and arrested him.
1823. Lockhart, Reg. Dalton, I. x. (1842), 59. Long forgotten stories about proctors bit, and bull-dogs baffled.
1884. G. Allen, Strange Stories, 289. It was quite a fortnight before I [senior proctor] could face my own bulldogs unabashed.
3. transf. Applied humorously to a cannon or other firearm; in mod. use, a particular kind of revolver. Cf. BARKER. Also attrib.
1700. Farquhar, Const. Couple, III. i. He whips out his Stiletto and I whips out my bull-dog.
1820. Scott, Abbot, xvi. A plague … on cannon and demi-cannon, and all the barking bulldogs whom they halloo against stone and lime in these our days! Ibid. (1824), St. Ronan’s W., II. 191 (D.). ‘I have always a brace of bull-dogs about me’ … so saying he exhibited a very handsome, highly finished … pair of pistols.
1867. Smyth, Sailor’s Word-bk., Bull-dog or Muzzled Bull-dog, the great gun which stands ‘housed’ in the officer’s ward-room cabin. General term for main-deck guns.
1881. Daily News, 27 Oct., 6/2. Revolver cartridges of the ordinary ‘bulldog’ pattern.
4. An insect: a. A kind of gad-fly (American). b. A kind of ant; also bulldog ant (Australian).
1865. Visct. Milton & W. B. Cheadle, Northwest Passage by Land, 219. The ‘bull-dog’ or tabanus, is a large fly … with a long body, banded with yellow … and its mouth is armed with a formidable cutting apparatus of four lancets.
1881. Cheq. Career, 324. The ‘bull-dog’ ant and the ‘soldier’ are about on a par as regards venom.
1883. St. James’ Gaz., 19 April. ‘Bulldogs’ (a large horse-fly) render existence almost unendurable.
5. In Iron-works. See quot.; also in comb. Bulldog-burner.
1881. Raymond, Mining Gloss., Bulldog, a refractory material used as furnace-lining, got by calcining mill-cinder, and containing silica and ferric oxide.
1884. Times, 8 Jan., 2/6. The ‘bulldog burner’ … is one of the hands in ironworks whose duty it is to roast the refuse cinder (called ‘bulldog’) which is necessary for the fettling of the puddling furnace.
6. pl. An old name of the Snap-dragon (Antirrhinum).
1861. Miss Pratt, Flower. Pl., IV. 124. Great Snapdragon … Bull-dogs, Lion’s-snap … are also old names of the plant.
7. Bulldog forceps. ‘Forceps with a spring catch … the extremity of one blade pointed, of the other notched, for the reception of the point.’ Syd. Soc. Lex.
1880. Mac Cormac, Antisept. Surg., 166. He was led from the use of the old ‘bull-dogs’ to the convenient and powerful clamp forceps he has now employed.
8. slang. A sugar-loaf.
1812. J. H. Vaux, Flash Dict., Bull-dog, a sugar-loaf.
