big dog—(UK dated sl.) a man engaged to expel unruly persons from a saloon, etc.; a “chucker-out”:
- He was “big-dog” to a disorderly house, and when called upon … to turn out of the establishment those who had been robbed in it he did not do his spiriting gently.
Note: The expression is not antonymous in meaning to the phrase short dog—(U.S. sl.) a bottle of cheap wine:
- Every now and then I get a short dog of Train and make my friends make funny faces as they watch me drink it.
Big Grey Dog—(U.S. sl.) a Greyhound Lines, Inc. bus (Greyhound Lines, Inc. providing the major intercity bus transportation):
- Greyhound is as American as apple pie. You have not lived unless you rode the Big Grey Dog, as I like to call it.