Green’s Dictionary of Slang

bulldog n.

1. from the dog’s aggression and strength.

(a) a sheriff’s officer.

[UK]Farquhar Love and a Bottle III ii: I sent for a couple of Bull-Dogs, and Arrested him.
[UK]N. Ward London Spy XIII 307: A parcel of Lazy Red-Coats were loitering about like so many City Bull-Dogs at the Poultry-Compter.
[Ire] ‘De Kilmainham Minit’ in Luke Caffrey’s Gost 5: For he was de smart on de Gap, / He boozl’d de Bull dog and pinners.
[UK]London Mag. Mar. 88/1: ‘The bulldogs know me so well that, by jingo! the scint of me near the office would cause a gineral purshute’.
[UK]Binstead & Wells A Pink ’Un and a Pelican 132: The usher consolingly assured Swears that he would be turned out at four o’clock, till which hour the baffled bulldogs would wait patiently on the doorstep.

(b) a thug, a bully.

[UK]Thrale Thraliana i Jan. 424: [of an aggressive supporter] Mr Thrale is very unkind actually, sick or well: he has ordered some more of my Trees in Wales to be cut down, he knows I would lose both my Ears as willingly; but when I complained to Johnson about his doing so once before, he was so angry at my setting my Bull Dog at him as he called it, that I said in my Heat—Well you may cut 'em all down if you will, I'll complain to him no more.
[[US]H.L. Williams Ticket-of-Leave Man 9: He was [...] known as the ‘Lambeth Bulldog’— an appelation bestowed upon him in honour of his having once, in a street encounter, bitten his opponent’s ear off].
[UK]L.C. Cornford Canker at the Heart 44: Then, a bulldog, sturdy fellow, sullenly callous.
[US]J. Lait Gangster Girl 40: A Yale graduate, a celebrity, a wholesome and handsome youngster with brains, body and bulldog in his make-up.
[US]C. Shafer ‘Catheads [...] and Cho-Cho Sticks’ in Abernethy Bounty of Texas (1990) 199: bull dog, n. – a bully; tough guy.
[US]Prison Slang Mommyblogger mydogharriet.blogspot.com 2 Mar. 🌐 That motherfucking bulldog needs to get checked for doing you greasy.

(c) (US) a watchman [note Oxbridge jargon bulldog, an assistant to the Proctors, those dons charged with maintaining university discipline].

[US]R.M. Bird City Looking Glass IV ii: We’ll have the bull-dogs here in a twinkling, head ratcatchers and all.

(d) (Aus./US) a police officer.

[Aus]Bulletin (Sydney) 16 May 22/1: As he read in his ledger this entry grim, / ‘For the hand of my daughter these – / Lord Golfo M’Guff, Sir Perryman Pym; / The Marquis of Manganese, / Sir Peblar de Bart, and Sir Jago Phipp, / All gone – and whither? But, lo,’ / He softly said as he curled his lip, / ‘How should the poor bull-dog know?’.
[Ire]Joyce Ulysses 543: bella: Do you want me to call the police? bloom: O, I know. Bulldog on the premises. But he’s a Trinity student. Patrons of your establishment. Gentlemen that pay the rent.
[US]H.L. Wilson Professor How Could You! 264: He is following my trail [...] and any moment he is liable to come with a couple of bulldogs and pinch me.
[US]P. Kendall Dict. Service Sl. n.p.: a bull dog . . . Military Police.
[Aus]D. Martin Hero of Too 253: The tunic suited him. Maybe he would have done better to join the police. ‘The bulldogs,’ Lam hissed.

2. (also bulldog pistol, bulldogged pistol) a pistol, which ‘barks’; also attrib.

[UK]Farquhar Constant Couple III ii: He whips out his stiletto, and I whips out my bull-dog.
[UK]Grose Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue.
[UK]Lex. Balatronicum.
[Scot]W. Scott St Ronan’s Well (1833) 332: ‘I have always a brace of bull-dogs about me.’ [...] So saying, he exhibited a very handsome, highly-finished, and richly-mounted pair of pistols.
Eve. Chron. 7 June 4/7: They told him to go below and get his ‘bull dogs,’ meaning his pistols.
‘The Saucy Hell-Cat and the Indiaman’ in Lloyd’s Companion 19 Sept. 2/5: ‘Damme, d’ye think I’m the pirate cap’n, that yer claps that ’ere bull-dog [...] so close to my bows?’.
Wkly Arkansas Gaz. (Little Rock, AR) 1 June 2/4: Mr Callaway [...] had cautioned prisoner that ‘Gillespie carried first-rate pistols’ [...] ‘always carried the bull-dogs about him’.
[UK]Duncombe New and Improved Flash Dict.
[US]Matsell Vocabulum.
[Aus]Sth Aus. Register (Adelaide, SA) 21 Feb.2/7: He also said there were ‘bulldogs’ (a slang term for pistols) at the other end of the ship.
[US]J. Miller Destruction of Gotham 81: She held the little black ‘bulldog’ pistol in her small white hand.
[US]Nat. Police Gaz. (NY) 22 Feb. 6/2: [H]e pulled a self-acting, five-chambered. 38-calibre revolver of the bulldog pattern from his pocket .
[Aus]Truth (Sydney) 1 Apr. 1/8: The snub-nosed, square-jawed species [i.e. of villains] [...] scowling defiance behind ‘bulldogs’.
[UK]C. Rook Hooligan Nights 62: I whipped out me bull-dog wiv six teef.
[Aus]Bulletin (Sydney) 31 Aug. 17: Husband:– ‘But what’s the matter with that repeating bulldog I bought you only last week?’ / Wife:– ‘O John, it’s a fright of a thing.’.
[US]‘Hugh McHugh’ Back to the Woods 51: To-morrow I’m going to town to buy a bull dog revolver, maybe a bull dog and a revolver.
[UK]Marvel III:55 10: The professional rogue had come with a ‘bulldog’ revolver in one of his overcoat pockets.
[US]D. Hammett ‘Afraid of a Gun’ in Nightmare Town (2001) 229: A dispute over a reading of the dice had left him facing a bull-dog pistol in the hands of a cockney sailor.
Blind Joe Reynolds ‘Outside Woman Blues’ 🎵 I’m gonna buy me a bulldog, watch my old lady whilst I sleep.
[US]R.F. Adams Cowboy Lingo 168: The ‘derringer’ or ‘bulldogged’ pistol was known in the trade as a ‘stingy gun’.
[US]Monteleone Criminal Sl. (rev. edn).
Perm ‘What's all the talk about’ 🎵 Any beef with the squad get the spinners out / 44 bulldog with 6 rounds.

3. a sugar-loaf [? its squat, solid shape].

[UK]Vaux Vocab. of the Flash Lang.

4. (N.Z. prison) a member of the Mongrel Mob biker gang which feature a bulldog in their colours.

[NZ]D. Looser Boobslang [U. Canterbury D.Phil. thesis] 32/2: bulldog n. a member of the Mongrel Mob.