sleuth-hound
(ˈsluːθhaʊnd)
Forms: 5 sloith-, slewth-, sleuth-, 5–6 sluth(e)-, 7 slwth-hund; 5 slwthound, 6 sleuthound; 7 slugh-, 7 (9) sluth-, 8 slothe, slooth, 7, 9– sleuth-hound (9 sleugh-).
[f. sleuth n.2 Originally northern and Sc.]
1. A species of bloodhound, formerly employed in Scotland for pursuing game or tracking fugitives. Now Hist. or arch.
| 1375 Barbour Bruce vi. 484 A sleuthhund had he thar. Ibid. vii. 40 The sleuth-hund maid stynting thar. c 1470 Henry Wallace v. 135 Thair sloith hund the graith gait till him ȝeid. 1483 Cath. Angl. 345/2 A Sluthe hunde, sapifur, oderinsecus. 1536 Bellenden Cron. Scot. (1821) I. p. xlii, He that denyis entres to the sleuthound..sal be haldin participant with the crime and thift committit. 1596 Dalrymple tr. Leslie's Hist. Scot. I. 7 Throuch thir woddis the gretter parte of the nobilitie hes thair maist recreatione in hunting with the sluthe-hundes. 1607 Topsell Four-f. Beasts 149 The second kind is called in Scotland a Sluth⁓hound. 1610 Holland Camden's Brit. ii. 18 Tracing them..by their footing..as quick senting Slugh-hounds doe lead them. 1674 N. Cox Gentl. Recreat. i. (1677) 29 The Blood-hound differeth nothing in quality from the Scotish Sluth-hound. 1777 Lightfoot Flora Scot. I. 7 Slough or slothe hounds. 1828 Scott Tales Grandf. Ser. i. I. viii, These bloodhounds, or sleuth-hounds,..were used for the purpose of pursuing great criminals. 1849 C. Brontë Shirley II. xi. 259 These persons Moore hunted like any sleuth⁓hound. 1885 M. E. Braddon Wyllard's Weird iii, If I were a criminal, I would as soon have a sleuthhound on my track as Joseph Distin. |
| attrib. 1870 Lowell Study Wind. 123 The remarkable feature of Mr. Carlyle's criticism..is the sleuth-hound instinct with which he presses on to the matter of his theme. |
2. transf. A keen investigator or pursuer; a tracker;
U.S. a detective.
| [1849 A. B. Reach Clement Lorimer xiii. 130 There is an awful mystery which the sleuth hounds of the law may trace—a mystery of suspicion, perhaps a mystery of crime.] 1856 Froude Hist. Eng. II. 316 Cromwell..had his sleuth-hounds abroad, whose scent was not easily baffled. 1857 Mrs. Gaskell C. Brontë (1860) 9 The West Riding men are sleuth-hounds in pursuit of money. 1890 ‘R. Boldrewood’ Col. Reformer (1891) 209 The inspector and I followed..our sable sleuth-hounds. 1902 Wodehouse Pothunters iv. 66 Jim's respect for the abilities of our national sleuth-hounds was greater than Tony's, and a good deal greater than that of most people. 1929 Bookman Nov. 264/1 ‘What is it, Fra Diavolo?’ he asked... ‘A peeler, fellow, a sleuth-hound.’ 1948 Amer. Speech XXIII. 306/2 The hunt for it would be engrossing to a literary sleuth-hound. |