Meanings
plural bloodhounds · alternative blood-hound · alternative bloudhound · alternative bloud-hound
- 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.
Someone stole our bloodhounds, but we got the backup bloodhounds to chase the first tier of bloodhounds.
2007, Xavier: Renegade Angel, season 1, episode 4, spoken by Police Officer - figurativelyinformalA detective or other person skilled at finding people or clues.
- archaicA bloodthirsty person.
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; […]
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
Synonyms & antonyms
nouna breed of large powerful hound of European origin having very acute smell and used in tracking
Synonym sets from Open English WordNet, CC BY 4.0.
Origin
- Middle Englishblodhound
- Englishbloodhound
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.
More words from Middle English
Full word history & related roots →Translations
Bulgarian детектив, таен агент
- детектив (detektiv)informal: detective
- таен агентinformal: detective
- хръ́тка (hrắtka)informal: detective
Catalan gos coniller
- gos conillerdog
Czech bloodhound
- bloodhounddog
Danish blodhund
- blodhunddog
Dutch bloedhond
- bloedhonddog
Esperanto spurhundo
- spurhundodog
Finnish vihikoira, verikoira
- vihikoiradog
- verikoirainformal: detective
French limier, chien de Saint-Hubert
- limierdog
- chien de Saint-Hubertdog
- limierinformal: detective
- détectiveinformal: detective
German Bloodhound, Bluthund
- Bloodhounddog
- Bluthunddog
- Schweißhunddog
- Schweisshunddog
- Detektivinformal: detective
- Detektivininformal: detective
- Schnüfflerinformal: detective
- Schnüfflerininformal: detective
Greek λαγωνικό, λαγωνικό
- λαγωνικό (lagonikó)dog
- λαγωνικό (lagonikó)informal: detective
Hawaiian ʻīlio hanu kanaka
- ʻīlio hanu kanakadog
Hungarian véreb, kopó
- vérebdog
- kopódog
- kopóinformal: detective
Icelandic blóðhundur
- blóðhundurdog
Irish madra fola
- madra foladog
Italian segugio, segugio
- segugiodog
- segugioinformal: detective
Malay انجيڠ ڤمبورو داره, anjing pemburu darah
- انجيڠ ڤمبورو دارهdog
- anjing pemburu darahdog
Norwegian Bokmål blodhund, blodhund
- blodhunddog
- blodhundbloodthirsty person
Persian سگ شکاری سنت اوبر
- سگ شکاری سنت اوبرdog
Polish ogar, posokowiec
- ogardog
- posokowiecdog
- tropowiecdog
- detektywinformal: detective
- detektywkainformal: detective
- krwiożercabloodthirsty person
Portuguese sabujo
- sabujodog
Romanian copoi
- copoidog
Russian ище́йка, сы́щик
- ище́йка (iščéjka)dog
- сы́щик (sýščik)informal: detective
- детекти́в (detektív)informal: detective
- ище́йка (iščéjka)informal: detective
Spanish sabueso, sabueso
- sabuesodog
- sabuesoinformal: detective
- sabuesainformal: detective
Swedish blodhund
- blodhunddog
Welsh gwaetgi
- gwaetgidog
Cite this entry
bloodhound. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 4, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/bloodhound
“bloodhound.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/bloodhound. Accessed November 4, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “bloodhound,” accessed November 4, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/bloodhound.
Source: bloodhound on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.