Noun

1. An animal's trail or track.
2. 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?

Verb

1. 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!

Noun

1. Slowness; laziness, sloth.
2. A collective term for a group of bears.
   • 1961, Noel Perrin, A Passport Secretly Green - Page 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 - Page 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 - Page 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