Obs. Forms: see TIE and DOG. [See TIE- 3.] A dog kept tied or chained up, either to guard a house, or because fierce; = BANDOG. (In last quot. fig.)
c. 1290. S. Eng. Leg., I. 308/301. Þe deuel … ne may no man … taken a-ȝein is wille, Nonmore þane a teiȝ doggue þat is in strongue teiȝe.
c. 1380. Wyclif, Wks. (1880), 252. Þouȝ þei bynden hem not to o synguler place as a tey dogge.
1430–40. Lydg., Bochas, III. i. (MS. Bodl. 263), 151/1. Cruel Orchus, the teidogge infernall Shal reende thi skyn … fro thi bonys.
1542. Udall, Erasm. Apoph., 127 b. Ther are tye doggues or mastifes for keepyng of houses.
1601. Chettle & Munday, Death Earl of Huntington, II. i. E iij. I knowe the villaine…, But as a ty-dogge I will muzzle him.
c. 1700. Mather, in Harper’s Mag., July (1883), 222/1. The Ty-dogs of the Pit are abroad among us.
