1. A large, very keen-scented dog (Canis sanguinarius), formerly much used for tracking large game, stolen cattle, and human fugitives. There are three important breeds, the English, Cuban, and African.
c. 1350. Will. Palerne, 2183. Seiȝe blod-houndes bolde.
c. 1440. Promp. Parv., 40. Bloode hownde, molosus.
1483. Cath. Angl., 35. A Blude hunde.
1548. Hall, Chron. Rich. III., an. 3. 26/1. Pleiyng the parte of a good blood hunde.
1624. Capt. Smith, Virginia, II. 32. They follow him like bloud-hounds.
1774. Goldsm., Nat. Hist., II. 166. The bloodhound was a dog of great use & high esteem among our ancestors.
1820. Keats, St. Agnes, xli. The wakeful bloodhound rose, and shook his hide.
2. fig. applied to men: A hunter for blood.
a. 1400[?]. Morte Arth., 3641. And gere theme brotheliche blenke, alle ȝone blod-hondes.
1550. Coverdale, Spir. Perle, xi. Wks. 1844, I. 128. Manasses … was a very bloodhound and a tyrant.
1818. Scott, Hrt. Midl., xxxiii. The blood-hounds of the law were so close after me.
3. attrib.
1820. Byron, Mar. Fal., IV. ii. 248. To have set The bloodhound mob on their patrician prey.
1864. Times, 17 Nov., 6/5. The assistance of some aboriginal blacks was obtained, these people possessing an almost blood-hound instinct in following up the very faintest tracks.
