sleuth

English

Pronunciation

• (RP) IPA: /sljuːθ/, X-SAMPA: /slju:T/
• (US) IPA: /sluːθ/
• Rhymes: -uːθ

Etymology 1

From Old Norse slóð (Norwegian slo).

Noun

sleuth (plural sleuths)

1. (obsolete) An animal’s trail or track.
2. (archaic) A sleuth-hound; a bloodhound.
3. 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?

Synonyms

• (detective): detective

Translations

detective

• Dutch: speurder (nl) m, speurneus (nl) m, detective (nl) m, detectief (nl) m (informal)
• Finnish: etsivä (fi), yksityisetsivä (fi)
• German: Schnüffler (de) m
• Greek: λαγωνικό (el) (lagonikó) n
• Italian: investigatore (it) m

• Russian: сыщик (ru) (sýščik) m, ищейка (ru) (iščéjka) f (usually pejorative)
• Serbo-Croatian: detektiv (sh), tragač (sh)
• Spanish: detective (es) m
• Swedish: deckare (sv), snok (sv) c, detektiv (sv)

Verb

sleuth (third-person singular simple present sleuths, present participle sleuthing, simple past and past participle sleuthed)

1. (intransitive, transitive) To act as a detective; to try to discover who committed a crime.
   • 1922, Agatha Christie, The Secret Adversary

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

Synonyms

• shadow

Translations

detective

• Dutch: naspeuren (nl), schaduwen (nl)
• Italian: mettersi sulle tracce (it)

• Russian: выслеживать (ru) (vysléživat’)
• Swedish: spana (sv), skugga (sv)

Etymology 2

From Old English slǣwþ, corresponding to slow + -th.

Noun

sleuth (plural sleuths)

1. (obsolete, uncountable) Slowness; laziness, sloth.
2. (rare) A collective term for a group of bears.
   • 1961, Noel Perrin, A Passport Secretly Green, p.89

     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…

   • 1995, Bobbie Ann Mason, The Girl Sleuth, p.13

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

   • 2007, Elinor De Wire, The Lightkeepers’ Menagerie: Stories of Animals at Lighthouses, p.200

     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.

Synonyms

• (sloth): idleness, inertia, laziness, lethargy, sloth, slothfulness
• (collective term for a group of bears): sloth

See also

• sloth
• Appendix:Animals

Anagrams

• hustle