Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. (also bandog bailiff) a bailiff or a bailiff’s assistant.

1605		Chapman & Jonson Eastward Ho! V ii: One Fangs, a sergeant [...] he was called the Bandog o’ the Counter.
1611		Davies of Hereford Scourge of Folly 14: Graxus if thy sole repute bee bralling; A Bandogge is thy better, by his balling.
1630		J. Taylor ‘A Brood of Cormorants’ in Works (1869) III 10: Nip’d him in priuate, neuer trig’d his way, / As Bandogs carrion.
1632		Massinger City-Madam IV iii: You come in time to free us from these ban-dogs.
1664		C. Cotton Virgil Travestie (1765) Bk I 50: With that to shaking Hands they fall [...] No Bandog could have shak’d ’em better.
1675		F. Fane Love in the Dark II i: Let’s make haste, his Bandogs live but at next door.
c.1698		B.E. Dict. Canting Crew.
1700		T. Brown Amusements Serious and Comical in Works (1744) III 14: Here a poet scampers for’t as fast as his legs will carry him, and at his heels a brace of bandog-bailiffs.
1707		N. Ward Wooden World 30: He and his Bandogs together, make a woeful Noise in all the Sea-port Towns.
1725		New Canting Dict.
1737, 1759, 1760, 1776		Bailey Universal Etym. Eng. Dict.
1785, 1788, 1796		Grose Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue.
1809		G. Andrewes Dict. Sl. and Cant.
1811		Lex. Balatronicum.
1823		‘Jon Bee’ Dict. of the Turf, the Ring, the Chase, etc.
1839		(con. 1703) W.H. Ainsworth Jack Sheppard (1917) 15: We’ll be upon the bandogs before they can shake their trotters!
1848		Flash Dict. in Sinks of London Laid Open 97: Bandog, a bum-bailiff.
1859		Matsell Vocabulum 9: bandog. A civil officer.
1868		J.D. McCabe Secrets of the Great City 358: The Detectives’ Manual gives a glossary of this language, from which we take the following specimens [...] Bandog. – A civil officer.
1885		‘Lela’ in Maitland Mercury (Aus./NSW) 2: In the rear of the house one of the gang of badnitti strode up to him. ‘Ye ain’t such an addle cove as to git egag cause you amputated the bandog and beat the scorn, are ye?’.
1887		Bulletin (Sydney) 5 Nov. 8/1: Blood curdling friends! whom neither earth nor hell / With all its brindled ban dogs, nor the dread / Of visitations of the sheeted dead, / With all their execrations in one yell, / Fright nor appall!

2. a bandbox.

c.1786		Grose Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue ms. additions n.p.: Band-dog. a Band Box. Cant.
1788, 1796		Grose Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue (2nd, 3rd edn) n.p.: Bandog. [...] a bandbox.
1811		Lex. Balatronicum.

3. a ruffian.

1821–6

‘Bill Truck’ Man o’ War’s Man (1843) 385: Only think of two poor fellows, seated among a body of stout, boisterous bandogs, who were hooting and scouting and sneering.

4. a policeman.

1885		‘Lela’ in Maitland Mercury (Aus./NSW) 31 Mar. 2: Swivel-Eye shot the bandog, the cop.
1938		N. Lindsay Age Of Consent 93: Those infernal bandogs of the law.
1949		Monteleone Criminal Sl. (rev. edn).
1960		(con. 1950-1960) R.A. Freeman Dict. Inmate Sl. (Walla Walla, WA) 5: Bandog – a civil officer; a cop; bull, etc.