• IPA: /haʊnd/

hound (plural hounds)

1. A dog, particularly a breed with a good sense of smell developed for hunting other animals.
2. Any canine animal.
3. (by extension) Someone who seeks something.
   • 1996, Marc Parent, Turning Stones, Harcourt Brace & Company, ISBN 0151002045, page 93,

     On the way out of the building I was asked for my autograph. If I'd known who the signature hound thought I was, I would've signed appropriately.

   • 2004, Jodi Picoult, My Sister's Keeper, Simon & Schuster, ISBN 0743486196, page 483

     I still do not know if he's taken on this case because he's a glory hound, because he wants the PR, or if he simply wanted to help Anna.

4. (by extension) A male who constantly seeks the company of desirable women.
   • 1915, Norman Duncan, "A Certain Recipient", in Harper's, volume 122, number 787, December 1915, republished in Harper's Monthly Magazine, volume 122, December 1915 to May 1916, page 108,

     "Are you alone, Goodson? […] I thought, perhaps, that the […] young woman, Goodson, who supplanted Mary?" […]

     "She had a good many successors, John."

     "You are such a hound, in that respect, Goodson," said Claywell, "and you have always been such a hound, that it astounds me to find you—unaccompanied."

5. A despicable person.
   • c. 1608–1609, William Shakespeare, “The Tragedy of Coriolanus”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies: Published According to the True Originall Copies (First Folio), London: Printed by Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, OCLC 606515358 ↗, [Act V, scene vi]:

     Boy! false hound!

   • , Elizabeth Walter, Come and Get Me

     'You blackmailing hound,' the parrot said distinctly, in what Hodges recognized as General Derby's voice. Anstruther turned pale.

6. A houndfish.

• French: chien de chasse, braque, molosse, chien courant
• German: Jagdhund
• Italian: bracco
• Portuguese: cão de caça, sabujo
• Russian: го́нчая

• Portuguese: caçador
• Russian: ищейка

• German: Schürzenjäger
• Portuguese: mulherengo
• Russian: кобель

hound (hounds, present participle hounding; past and past participle hounded)

1. (transitive) To persistently harass.

   He hounded me for weeks, but I was simply unable to pay back his loan.

2. (transitive) To urge on against; to set (dogs) upon in hunting.
   • 1897, Andrew Lang, The Book of Dreams and Ghosts (page 162)

     We both thought we saw what had the appearance to be a fox, and hounded the dogs at it, but they would not pursue it.

• German: belästigen
• Russian: пресле́довать

hound (plural hounds)

1. (nautical, in the plural) Projections at the masthead, serving as a support for the trestletrees and top to rest on.
2. A side bar used to strengthen portions of the running gear of a vehicle.