Noun: mastiff
| Singular | mastiff |
| Plural | mastiffs |
Sample Sentences
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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:]
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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:]
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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:]
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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]:]
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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:]
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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:]
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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:]
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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.:]
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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:]
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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:]
Nouns inflected like mastiff
mastiff,
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”). See: Middle English Nouns '
mastif', French Nouns '
mâtin', Latin Nouns '
mansuetus'.
Verbs referencing "mastiff"
French Nouns
mâtin, Finnish Nouns
mastiffi, Polish Nouns
mastyf, Polish Nouns
mastif.