bloodhound

See also: Bloodhound

English

Alternative forms

• blood-hound
• bloudhound, bloud-hound (obsolete)

Etymology

Inherited from Middle English blodhound, blodhond; equivalent to blood +‎ hound. Cognate with Dutch bloedhond (“bloodhound”), Middle Low German blōthunt (“bloodhound”), German Bluthund (“bloodhound”), Danish blodhund (“bloodhound”), Swedish blodhund (“bloodhound”). The detective sense follows from the dog's ability to follow a trail.

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈblʌd.haʊnd/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

Noun

bloodhound (plural bloodhounds)

1. A large scenthound famed for its ability to follow a scent many days old, over vast distances. This dog is often used as a police dog to track missing people, fleeing suspects, or escaped prisoners.
   • 2007, Xavier: Renegade Angel, season 1, episode 4, spoken by Police Officer:

     Someone stole our bloodhounds, but we got the backup bloodhounds to chase the first tier of bloodhounds.

2. (figurative, informal) A detective or other person skilled at finding people or clues.
3. (archaic) A bloodthirsty person.
   • 1817 December, Percy Bysshe Shelley, “The Revolt of Islam. […]”, in [Mary] Shelley, editor, The Poetical Works of Percy Bysshe Shelley. […], volume I, London: Edward Moxon […], published 1839, →OCLC, page 263:

     For now the despot’s blood-hounds with their prey,
     Unarmed and unaware, were gorging deep
     Their gluttony of death; the loose array
     Of horsemen o’er the wide fields murdering sweep,
     And with loud laughter for their tyrant reap
     A harvest sown with other hopes; […]

Derived terms

• bloodhounding
• bloodhoundish

Translations

dog

• Bulgarian: ловджийско куче (lovdžijsko kuče)
• Catalan: gos coniller m
• Czech: bloodhound (cs) m
• Danish: blodhund c
• Dutch: bloedhond (nl) m
• Erzya: верьбине (veŕbine)
• Esperanto: spurhundo
• Finnish: vihikoira (fi)
• French: limier (fr) m, chien de Saint-Hubert (fr) m
• Galician: sabuxo m
• German: Bloodhound m (usually a specific breed), Bluthund (de) m (scenthound in general), Schweißhund (de) m, Schweisshund (de) m (Switzerland, Liechtenstein)
• Hawaiian: ʻīlio hanu kanaka
• Hungarian: véreb (hu), kopó (hu)
• Icelandic: blóðhundur m
• Irish: madra fola m
• Italian: segugio (it) m
• Kyrgyz: жойчу (ky) f (joycu)
• Malay:

  Jawi: انجيڠ ڤمبورو داره

  Rumi: anjing pemburu darah

• Manx: coo folley m
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: blodhund (no) m

  Nynorsk: blodhund m

• Persian: سگ شکاری سنت اوبر
• Polish: ogar (pl) m, posokowiec m
• Portuguese: sabujo (pt) m
• Russian: ище́йка (ru) f (iščéjka)
• Spanish: sabueso (es) m
• Swedish: blodhund (sv) c
• Volapük: bludadog (vo)
• Welsh: gwaetgi m

informal: detective

• Bulgarian: детектив m (detektiv), таен агент (taen agent)
• Finnish: verikoira (fi)
• French: limier (fr) m, détective (fr) m
• German: Detektiv (de) m, Detektivin (de) f, Schnüffler (de) m, Schnüfflerin (de) f
• Greek: λαγωνικό (el) n (lagonikó)
• Hungarian: kopó (hu)
• Italian: segugio (it) m
• Russian: сы́щик (ru) m (sýščik), детекти́в (ru) m (detektív), ище́йка (ru) f (iščéjka) (usually pejorative)
• Spanish: sabueso (es) m, sabuesa f

bloodthirsty person

• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: blodhund (no) m

  Nynorsk: blodhund m

The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.

Translations to be checked

• Spanish: sabueso (es) m