bandog

noun

1. (archaic)A dog that has been tied up; a mastiff or other kind of guard dog.

   “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.”

   “Patriots may smile; and, using him [ Jean-Paul Marat ] as bandog now to be muzzled, now to be let bark....”

   “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.”

2. (specifically)A type of large, ferocious dog, bred by crossing American pit bull terriers with Neapolitan mastiffs.
3. (figuratively, literary)Something that or someone who pursues doggedly.

   “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)A bailiff or prison guard.