hound

Meaning

Noun

1. A dog, particularly a breed with a good sense of smell developed for hunting other animals.
2. Any canine animal.
3. (broadly) Someone who seeks something.
4. (broadly) A male who constantly seeks the company of desirable women.
5. A despicable person.
6. A houndfish.

Verb

1. (transitive) To persistently harass doggedly.
2. (transitive) To urge on against; to set (dogs) upon in hunting.

Synonyms

dog

🐕

hunting dog

pursue

chase

harass

canine

follow

hunt

setter

gun dog

foxhound

trace

trouble

canid

tyrannize

harry

heel

hector

hound dog

coerce

intimidate

compel

menace

mongrel

blackguard

pester

bloodhound

bludgeon

pointer

pooch

pressure

dragoon

bother

bounder

bait

retriever

browbeat

force

bully

cad

terrier

terrorize

torment

running dog

tool of another person

deer-hound

K-9

bull huss

flake catfish

greate-spotted dogfish

Translations

chien de chasse

Jagdhund

chien

🐕

köpek

🐕

Hund

🐕

cane

🐕

σκύλος

hond

🐕

cão

🐕

canis

🐕

perro

🐕

bracco

κυνηγόσκυλο

Pronounced as (IPA)

/haʊnd/

Etymology

Inherited from Middle English: hound

Inherited from Old English: hund

Cognate with Western Frisian: hûn

Cognate with Dutch: hond

Cognate with Luxembourgish: Hond

Cognate with German: Hund

Cognate with Danish: hund

Cognate with Faroese: hundur

Cognate with Icelandic: hundur

Cognate with Norwegian Bokmål: hund

Cognate with Norwegian Nynorsk: hund

Cognate with Swedish: hund

Cognate with Latvian: sùnt-ene

Cognate with Old Irish: cú

Cognate with Tokharian B: ku

Cognate with Lithuanian: šuõ

Cognate with Armenian: շուն

Cognate with Russian: сука

Inherited from Middle English: hounden

Inherited from Middle English: hownde

In summary

From Middle English hound, from Old English hund, from Proto-West Germanic *hund, from Proto-Germanic *hundaz, from pre-Germanic *ḱuntós (compare Latvian sùnt-ene (“big dog”), enlargement of Proto-Indo-European *ḱwṓ (“dog”). Doublet of canine.
In 14th-century England, hound was the general word for all domestic canines, and dog referred to a subtype resembling the modern mastiff and bulldog. By the 16th century, dog had become the general word, and hound had begun to refer only to breeds used for hunting.