sleuth
/sluːθ/ noun, verb
Also a form of sloth
Forms sleuths sleuthing sleuthed
- noun A detective.
- noun (archaic) A sleuthhound; a bloodhound.
- noun (obsolete) An animal’s trail or track.
- verb (ambitransitive) To act as a detective; to try to discover who committed a crime, or, more generally, to solve a mystery.
- noun (obsolete, uncountable) Slowness; laziness, sloth.
- noun (rare, collective) A group of bears.
Synonyms
detective gumshoe investigator dick private eye shadow get to the bottom of solve work out absolve decipher iron out meliorate puzzle out ravel reason out resolve riddle tease out think out sleuthhound spy stag snoop
Etymology
Clipping of sleuthhound.
From Old English slǣwþ, corresponding to slow + -th.
Webster’s 1913
Etymology [Icel. sloedh. See Slot a track.]
Sources: Wiktionary · WordNet 3.0 · Webster’s 1913 — from the Wiktionary entry “sleuth”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details