Dictionary

mastiff en · NOUN

Pronunciation

• (Southern-England) audio
• /ˈmæstɪf/ (General-American, UK)

Etymology

From Middle English mastif, mastyf, an aberrant derivation (with influence from Old French mestif) from Old French mastin (modern French mâtin), from Vulgar Latin *mansuetinus (“tamed (animal)”), from Latin mansuetus (“tamed”).

Meanings

1. One of an old breed of powerful, deep-chested, and smooth-coated dogs, used chiefly as watchdogs and guard dogs.
   • Soon as Ulyſſes near th’encloſure drew, / With open mouths the furious maſtives flew: […] 1725, Homer, “Book XIV”, in [Alexander Pope], transl., The Odyssey of Homer. […], volume III, London: […] Bernard Lintot, →OCLC, page 233:
   • Neither of them could say how many years it had been since the week-long poisoning epidemic, which first took their father’s bulls, then his mastives, then the man himself; […] 1989, Bob Shacochis, “Les Femmes Creoles: A Fairy Tale”, in The Next New World, New York, N.Y.: Crown Publishers, Inc., →ISBN, page 22:
   • They fill’d the Capitoll, and Pompei’s Circke: / Where, like ſo many Maſtiues, biting ſtones, / As if his Statues novv vvere ſenſitiue / Of their vvild fury, firſt they teare them dovvne: / Then faſtning ropes, drag them along the ſtreetes, […] 1603 (first performance), Ben[jamin] Jonson, Seianus His Fall, London: […] G[eorge] Elld, for Thomas Thorpe, published 1605, →OCLC, Act V, signature [M4], verso:
   • Avaunt, you curs! Be thy mouth or black or white, Tooth that poisons if it bite; Mastiff, greyhound, mongrel grim, Hound or spaniel, brach or him. c. 1603–1606, William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of King Lear”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act III, scene vi]:
   • At which time, they wryte that Demoſthenes told the people of Athens, the fable of the ſheepe and woulues, how that the woulues came on a time, and willed the ſheepe, if they woulde haue peace with them, to deliuer them their maſtiues that kept them. 1579, Plutarke of Chæronea [i.e., Plutarch], “The Life of Demosthenes”, in Thomas North, transl., The Lives of the Noble Grecians and Romaines, […], London: […] Richard Field, →OCLC, page 908:
   • Milei’s allies reject his portrayal as an unbalanced powder keg, although they do not refute claims their leader takes counsel from his cloned mastiffs. 2023 November 19, Tom Phillips, “Argentina holds breath as far-right Milei seizes narrow runoff advantage”, in The Guardian, →ISSN:
   • Her, who did erst the lengthened fight maintain, / And heaped the death-pile red with Prankish gore, / The Vert fangs now to vassalage constrain: / The mastives old and young, Verrucchio bore, / Who in their lawless rule Montagna slew, / Make their teeth augres where they wont of yore: […] 1843, Dante Alighieri, translated by John Dayman, The Inferno of Dante Alighieri, Translated in the Terza Rima of the Original, with Notes and Appendix, London: William Edward Painter, […], page 173:
   • The conquering foe they soon assail’d; / First Trulla stav’d, and Cerdon tail’d, / Until their Mastives loos’d their hold: / And yet alas! do what they could, / The worsted Bear came off with store / Of bloudy wounds, but all before. 1662 (indicated as 1663), [Samuel Butler], “[The First Part of Hudibras]. Canto III.”, in Hudibras. The First and Second Parts. […], London: […] John Martyn and Henry Herringman, […], published 1678, →OCLC; republished in A[lfred] R[ayney] Waller, editor, Hudibras: Written in the Time of the Late Wars, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire: University Press, 1905, →OCLC, page 63:
   • As ſaluage Bull, whom two fierce maſtiues bayt, / When rancour doth with rage him once engore, / Forgets with wary warde them to awayt, / But with his dreadfull hornes them driues afore, / Or flings aloft or treades downe in the flore, / Breathing out wrath, and bellowing diſdaine, / That all the foreſt quakes to heare him rore: […] 1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book II, Canto VIII”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC, page 302:
   • The Mastiff is a good fighter, and can kill a wildcat, taking the necessary punishment well, as we found out when we once trapped one of these small lynxes. 1896, Theodore Roosevelt, chapter 11, in Ranch Life and the Hunting-Trail, The Century Co.:

Forms

Deriveds

mini mastiff · Dutch mastiff · western mastiff bat · mastiff bat · Daniff

Hypernyms

molosser

Translations (41)

la canis villaticus (powerful, deep-chested, and smooth-coated dog) · es mastín (powerful, deep-chested, and smooth-coated dog) · la canis Anglicus (powerful, deep-chested, and smooth-coated dog) · ang ryþþa (powerful, deep-chested, and smooth-coated dog) · hu masztiff (powerful, deep-chested, and smooth-coated dog) · lt mastifas (powerful, deep-chested, and smooth-coated dog) · nl mastiff (powerful, deep-chested, and smooth-coated dog) · ja マスティフ (powerful, deep-chested, and smooth-coated dog) · bo འདོགས་ཁྱི (powerful, deep-chested, and smooth-coated dog) · an mostín (powerful, deep-chested, and smooth-coated dog) · it mastino (powerful, deep-chested, and smooth-coated dog) · bg английски дог (powerful, deep-chested, and smooth-coated dog) · ru дог (powerful, deep-chested, and smooth-coated dog) · de Dogge (powerful, deep-chested, and smooth-coated dog) · ang roþhund (powerful, deep-chested, and smooth-coated dog) · cy mastiff (powerful, deep-chested, and smooth-coated dog) · he מסטיף (powerful, deep-chested, and smooth-coated dog) · ia mastiff (powerful, deep-chested, and smooth-coated dog) · ca mastí (powerful, deep-chested, and smooth-coated dog) · es alano (powerful, deep-chested, and smooth-coated dog) · gl mastín (powerful, deep-chested, and smooth-coated dog) · cmn 獒 (powerful, deep-chested, and smooth-coated dog) · af waghond (powerful, deep-chested, and smooth-coated dog) · af kettinghond (powerful, deep-chested, and smooth-coated dog) · es dogo (powerful, deep-chested, and smooth-coated dog) · ms anjing mastif (powerful, deep-chested, and smooth-coated dog) · ar دِرْوَاس (powerful, deep-chested, and smooth-coated dog) · cs doga (powerful, deep-chested, and smooth-coated dog) · eo dogo (powerful, deep-chested, and smooth-coated dog) · vo doeg (powerful, deep-chested, and smooth-coated dog) · tr mastif (powerful, deep-chested, and smooth-coated dog) · fr dogue (powerful, deep-chested, and smooth-coated dog) · ja マスチフ (powerful, deep-chested, and smooth-coated dog) · af slagtershond (powerful, deep-chested, and smooth-coated dog) · pl mastif (powerful, deep-chested, and smooth-coated dog) · pt mastim (powerful, deep-chested, and smooth-coated dog) · ga maistín (powerful, deep-chested, and smooth-coated dog) · ia dogo (powerful, deep-chested, and smooth-coated dog) · pt dogue (powerful, deep-chested, and smooth-coated dog) · ro mastif (powerful, deep-chested, and smooth-coated dog) · fi mastiffi (powerful, deep-chested, and smooth-coated dog)