Definition of SLEUTH

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Verb

They were the footprints of a gigantic hound! Those canine tracks in Arthur Conan Doyle's The Hound of the Baskervilles set the great Sherlock Holmes sleuthing on the trail of a murderer. It was a case of art imitating etymology. When Middle English speakers first borrowed sleuth from Old Norse, the term referred to "the track of an animal or person." In Scotland, a sleuthhound was a bloodhound used to hunt game or track down fugitives from justice. In 19th century U.S. English, sleuthhound became an epithet for a detective and was soon shortened to sleuth. From there, it was only a short leap to turning sleuth into a verb describing what a sleuth does.

Examples of sleuth in a Sentence

Noun

the popular TV sleuth lives a much more action-packed life than do his real-world counterparts

Recent Examples on the Web: Noun

On the enforcement side, drug, cybercrime and money laundering sleuths are targeting major suppliers. — Carla K. Johnson, The Seattle Times, "Q&A: Feds tackle opioid epidemic, but is it helping?," 28 Jan. 2019 Others, particularly those in Facebook sleuth groups, speculate that the Harts decided to end it all because of their debt (around $14,000). — Glamour, "Broken Harts, Episode 7: 'Stone-Cold Narcissist'," 22 Jan. 2019 Motivated Twitter sleuths quickly unearthed several instances, ceasing after 2014, in which Norton posted tweets containing gay slurs and in at least two instances dropped the n-word. — Aja Romano, Vox, "The “controversy” over journalist Sarah Jeong joining the New York Times, explained," 3 Aug. 2018 Riverdale star Madelaine Petsch may not have been cast as the redheaded sleuth in the live-action version of Disney’s classic cartoon Kim Possible,, as some fans wanted to happen, but there are no hard feelings at all. — Kara Nesvig, Teen Vogue, "Madelaine Petsch Encouraged "Kim Possible" Star Sadie Stanley Over DM," 14 Sep. 2018 Armchair sleuths convened in private Facebook forums to pore over each detail of the case and each seemingly idyllic image on Jen’s feed looking for answers and doling out pop psychology diagnoses. — Lauren Smiley, Glamour, "Two White Moms. Six Black Kids. One Unthinkable Tragedy. A Look Inside the ‘Perfect’ Hart Family," 6 Sep. 2018 The reboot of this show last year inspired feverish fandoms and online reactions, with sleuths digging deep to ascertain Antoni Porowski’s level of cooking skill and Tom Jackson’s relationship status. — Andrew R. Chow, New York Times, "What’s on TV Friday: ‘Queer Eye’ and ‘Wyatt Cenac’s Problem Areas’," 15 June 2018 There are few things more zealous than an amateur sleuth in search of a smoking gun to take down President Trump. — Aaron Blake, Washington Post, "Did a watchdog group just find Trump's Stormy Daniels hush money? Er, probably not.," 23 Jan. 2018 Photos and videos of Harris being pummeled by pipes and boards went viral on social media, and led internet sleuths to track down the identities of the men involved. — NBC News, "White man found guilty in Charlottesville beating of black man," 2 May 2018

Recent Examples on the Web: Verb

At least, that's what YouTuber Elle Tells concluded after sleuthing around social media, as reported by Revelist. — Kaleigh Fasanella, Allure, "It Looks Like Urban Decay's New Naked Cherry Palette Just Leaked on Social Media," 29 Aug. 2018 The Nancy Drew fan in me decided to sleuth around a bit. — Country Living, "#11 The Mystery of the Disappearing Chard," 21 June 2011 But that's not all some social media sleuthing revealed. — Lindsey V Thompson, Teen Vogue, "Bella Hadid and The Weeknd Spotted Hanging Out in Paris," 1 June 2018 But Young’s sister had done her homework to ensure she’d made the right choice, sleuthing out the breed Young was partial to and even catching him in conversation about dog names. — Nancy Kruh, PEOPLE.com, "Meet Chris Young's Adorable Puppy, Porter: 'He Might Lick You to Death!'," 8 May 2018 Doty and her colleagues are now sleuthing out the gene that enables PDN3 to accomplish this feat. — Leslie Nemo, Scientific American, "Treating Toxins with Tree Microbes," 1 Nov. 2017 They were sold two years ago, but in the meantime, Trevor had sleuthed a rustic compound based around an honest-to-goodness Craftsman Sears kit house of the sort that sprang up all across America at the turn of the century. — Oberto Gili, Vogue, "Napa of Another Time: Restoring a 100-Year-Old Home in Wine Country," 18 Jan. 2018 The birth of eBay signaled an entirely new way of sleuthing out vintage gear. — Nick Sullivan, Esquire, "Vintage Expert Sean Crowley Shares His Tips for Scoring the Perfect Find," 5 Jan. 2018 Cincinnati's bus system by the numbers Wochit Troy Miller has been sleuthing Greater Cincinnati's main public transportation agency for years, certainly long before SORTA recently found $8 million just sitting around in its bank account. — Jason Williams, Cincinnati.com, "PX: SORTA leader pushes sales tax in Hamilton County – even though he votes in Texas," 15 Feb. 2018

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'sleuth.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.