sleuth dog

plural sleuth dogs · alternative sleuth-dog

1. informalSynonym of sleuthhound (“a detective; a sleuth”).

   Three troopers guided by a masked man and a sleuth dog pursued him.

   1991, Michael Brander, Tales of the Borders, page 132

   3 more examples

   "No force must be used upon him. Within what time wilt thou find him out?" / "Within thirty hours, so he have not crossed the Lothian firth–If it is to do you a pleasure, I will set off directly, and wind him as a sleuth-dog tracks the moss-trooper,” answered Christie.

   1820 March, [Walter Scott], chapter IX, in The Monastery. A Romance. […], volume III, Edinburgh: […] Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown, […]; and for Archibald Constable and Co., and John Ballantyne, […], →OCLC, page 238

   I was told she was the finest sleuth dog on the borders, but thus far she's proven herself useless.

   2002, Jen Holling, Tamed by your desire, page 25

   Brought to England by William the Conqueror, the solemn-looking Bloodhound has entered literature and legend as the archetypal sleuth dog, but it never kills its prey.

   2003, Paul McGreevy, Dog lover's companion, page 350

   Synonyms: sleuthhound