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"They were the footprints of a gigantic hound!" Those canine tracks in Arthur Conan Doyle's The Hound of the Baskervilles set the great Sherlock Holmes sleuthing on the trail of a murderer. It was a case of art imitating etymology. When Middle English speakers first borrowed sleuth from Old Norse, the term referred to "the track of an animal or person." In Scotland, sleuthhound referred to a bloodhound used to hunt game or track down fugitives from justice. In 19th-century U.S. English, sleuthhound became an epithet for a detective and was soon shortened to sleuth. From there, it was only a short leap to turning sleuth into a verb describing what a sleuth does.
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Examples of sleuth in a Sentence
Sam Sabin, Axios, 25 Oct. 2024
The most mysterious song on the internet, which thousands of devoted sleuths have been trying to identify since 2007, finally has a name.
—Jon Blistein, Rolling Stone, 5 Nov. 2024
Erik Kain, Forbes, 14 Oct. 2024
Experts have suggested people’s desire to sleuth — which at times can spread false allegations and misinformation — is a symptom of the internet’s obsession with true crime and its desire to engage in gossip.
—Kat Tenbarge, NBC News, 4 Oct. 2024
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Dictionary Entries Near sleuth
Cite this Entry
“Sleuth.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/sleuth. Accessed 22 Nov. 2024.
Copy CitationKids Definition
sleuth
1 of 2 nounsleuth
2 of 2 verbNoun
a shortened form of sleuthhound "a dog that follows a track or trail by scent," from Middle English sleuth "a track or trail"; of Norse origin
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