bloodhound

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   a large scent hound with an exceptionally keen sense of smell, used to track people

   The police used a bloodhound to follow the missing hiker's trail.

2. 2
   noun

   a persistent investigator who is highly skilled at finding people, facts, or clues

   The reporter was a bloodhound for inconsistencies in public records.

Inherited from Middle English blodhound, a compound of blood + hound. Blood probably referred originally to noble or pure breeding, not to following the smell of blood. The figurative investigator sense grew from the dog's exceptional tracking ability.

Topics