DHPa large strong dog, often used to guard houses 〔常用于看家的〕大驯犬
Examples from the Corpus
mastiff• The city's pet-loving Bohemians are obsessed by the horribledeath of a woman mauled by a mastiff.• One Sunday, he went hunting with his fierce black mastiffs, stopping only to swig at a flask of strong drink.• A longtime breeder of championbullmastiffs, Einstein is a smart, able, take-no-prisoners type of gal.• Johno is a 13-stone bull mastiff, Barry's the tinyborderterrier.• Ask not what bull mastiffs can do for you.• Two hugegaolers, with the bodies of apes and the faces of cruelmastiffs, padded silently behind them.• A bloody-mouthed mastifftied by a chain to a lintel of a door snarled and barked.• He stepped over, pierced one of the rawchunks with his dagger and held it up before the mastiff.
Originmastiff
(1300-1400)Old Frenchmastin, from Latinmansuetus“easy to handle, not wild”