hound

plural hounds

1. A dog, particularly a breed with a good sense of smell developed for hunting other animals.

   The hounds were baying a fox.

2. Any canine animal.
3. broadlySomeone who seeks something.

   I still do not know if he's taken on this case because he's a glory hound, because he wants the PR, or if he simply wanted to help Anna.

   2004, Jodi Picoult, My Sister's Keeper, Simon & Schuster,, →ISBN, page 483

   1 more example

   On the way out of the building I was asked for my autograph. If I'd known who the signature hound thought I was, I would've signed appropriately.

   1996, Marc Parent, Turning Stones, Harcourt Brace & Company, →ISBN, page 93

4. broadlyA male who constantly seeks the company of desirable women.

   "She had a good many successors, John." "You are such a hound, in that respect, Goodson," said Claywell, "and you have always been such a hound, that it astounds me to find you—unaccompanied."

   1915, Norman Duncan, "A Certain Recipient", in Harper's, volume 122, number 787, December 1915, republished in Harper's Monthly Magazine, volume 122, December 1915 to May 1916, page 108, "Are you alone, Goodson? […] I thought, perhaps, that the […] young woman, Goodson, who supplanted Mary?" […]

5. A despicable person.

   Boy! false hound!

   c. 1608–1609 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedy of Coriolanus”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act V, scene vi]

   2 more examples

   I turned away and left her to finish her journey in peace, feeling, but only for a moment or two, that I had been an unutterably mean hound.

   1888, Rudyard Kipling, “The Phantom Rickshaw”, in The Phantom 'Rickshaw and Other Tales, Allahabad: A.H. Wheeler and Co., page 12

   'You blackmailing hound,' the parrot said distinctly, in what Hodges recognized as General Derby's voice. Anstruther turned pale.

   1973, Elizabeth Walter, Come and Get Me and Other Uncanny Invitations

   Synonyms: cur

6. A houndfish.

present singular third person hounds · participle present hounding · participle past hounded · past hounded

1. transitiveTo persistently harass doggedly.

   He hounded me for weeks, but I was simply unable to pay back his loan.

   1 more example

   More pertinently for the plot, another marked difference from history is that the United Kingdom of this 1982 is precociously computerised. Instead of having been hounded to death for his homosexuality, the scientist Alan Turing is thriving and lauded.

   2019 April 11, Marcel Theroux, “Machines Like Me by Ian McEwan review – intelligent mischief”, in The Guardian

   Synonyms: badger, bait, badger, bait, bedevil, beleaguer, persecute, dog

2. archaictransitiveTo urge on against; to set (dogs) upon in hunting.

   We both thought we saw what had the appearance to be a fox, and hounded the dogs at it, but they would not pursue it.

   1897, Andrew Lang, The Book of Dreams and Ghosts, page 162

plural hounds · alternative hune

1. in pluralnauticalProjections located at the masthead or foremast, serving as a support for the trestletrees and top on which to rest; a foretop.
2. A side bar used to strengthen portions of the running gear of a vehicle.

1. A small village and civil parish in Eastleigh borough, Hampshire, England (OS grid ref SU4708).