sleuth

plural sleuths

1. A detective.

   1908, Edith Van Dyne (Frank L. Baum), Aunt Jane’s Nieces at Millville Do ye want me to become a sleuth, or engage detectives to track the objects of your erroneous philanthropy?

   1 more example

   “This is a great piece of sleuth work for sure, and it significantly advances efforts to understand the origin of SARS-CoV-2,” said Michael Worobey, an evolutionary biologist at the University of Arizona who was not involved in the study.

   2021 June 23, Carl Zimmer, quoting Michael Worobey, “Scientist Finds Early Virus Sequences That Had Been Mysteriously Deleted”, in The New York Times, →ISSN

   Synonyms: detective, gumshoe, investigator, dick, private eye

2. archaicA sleuthhound; a bloodhound.
3. obsoleteAn animal’s trail or track.

present singular third person sleuths · participle present sleuthing · participle past sleuthed · past sleuthed

1. ambitransitiveTo act as a detective; to try to discover who committed a crime, or, more generally, to solve a mystery.

   We must discover where he lives, what he does — sleuth him, in fact!

   1922, Agatha Christie, The Secret Adversary

   Synonyms: gumshoe, shadow, get to the bottom of, solve, work out, absolve, decipher, get to the bottom of

plural sleuths

1. obsoleteuncountableSlowness; laziness, sloth.

   Synonyms: idleness, inertia, laziness, lethargy, sloth, slothfulness

2. collectiverareA group of bears.

   If these dainty adventurers weren’t being chased by a sleuth of bears or bogeys, they were being captured by Gypsies or thieves.

   1995, Bobbie Ann Mason, The Girl Sleuth, page 13

   2 more examples

   As quietly as if I were practicing to join a sleuth of bears, I crept out the door and went on home, eventually winding up in the garage…

   1961, Noel Perrin, A Passport Secretly Green, page 89

   From the darkness came the howls of routs of wolves and bands of coyotes, the rumbling growls of a sleuth of bears or the bugles of a gang of elk.

   2007, Elinor DeWire, The Lightkeepers’ Menagerie: Stories of Animals at Lighthouses, page 200

   Synonyms: sloth