hound

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

1. n. A domestic dog of any of various breeds commonly used for hunting, characteristically having drooping ears, a short coat, and a deep resonant voice.
2. n. A dog.
3. n. A contemptible person; a scoundrel.
4. n. One who eagerly pursues something: a gossip hound.
5. n. A devotee or an enthusiast: a coffee hound.
6. v. To pursue relentlessly and tenaciously. See Synonyms at harass.
7. v. To urge insistently; nag: hounded me until I agreed to cut my hair.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

1. n. A dog; specifically, a dog of a breed or variety used in the chase, as in hunting the boar, the deer, the fox, the hare, or the otter. The principal breeds of dogs distinctively classed as hounds (some-times considered as constituting a species. Canis sagax) are the beagle, bloodhound, buckhound, foxhound, greyhound, harrier, and staghound. (See these words.) Hounds commonly hunt by scent, and are for the most part used in numbers together, called packs, to run down and capture or kill the game. Many kinds of dogs are readily bred or trained for this purpose, as it is the mode of hunting most natural to wild dogs and wolves. In England hound without qualification means a foxhound: as, to follow the hounds.
2. n. A mean, contemptible fellow; a dastard; a poltroon: as, a low hound; a sly hound.
3. n. Same as houndfish, 1.
4. n. The oldwife, or long-tailed duck, Harelda glacialis: so called from its gabble, likened to the cry of a pack of hounds.
5. n. Nautical, a projection at the masthead on either side, serving as a support for the trestle-trees of large or the rigging of smaller vessels. Also called hounding.
6. n. Either of two pieces of wood used in artillery-limbers to connect the splinter-bar and pole with the axle.
7. n. Either of a pair of side-bars or horizontal braces for reinforcing various parts of the running-gear of a vehicle.
8. To set on the chase; incite to pursuit.
9. To hunt or pursue with or as if with hounds: as, to hound deer.
10. To pursue or harass as if with hounds: as, to hound one on to ruin.
11. To follow like a hound; track; trail.

Wiktionary

1. n. A dog, particularly a breed with a good sense of smell developed for hunting other animals. (Hunt hound, Hunting hound, hunting dog, hunter)
2. n. by extension Someone who seeks something.
3. n. by extension A male who constantly seeks the company of receptive females. In more recent times, hound has been replaced by dog but the sense remains the same.
4. v. transitive To persistently harass.

GNU Webster's 1913

1. n. (Zoöl.) A variety of the domestic dog, usually having large, drooping ears, esp. one which hunts game by scent, as the foxhound, bloodhound, deerhound, but also used for various breeds of fleet hunting dogs, as the greyhound, boarhound, etc.
2. n. A despicable person.
3. n. (Zoöl.) A houndfish.
4. n. (Naut.) Projections at the masthead, serving as a support for the trestletrees and top to rest on.
5. n. A side bar used to strengthen portions of the running gear of a vehicle.
6. v. To set on the chase; to incite to pursuit
7. v. To hunt or chase with hounds, or as with hounds.

WordNet 3.0

1. n. someone who is morally reprehensible
2. n. any of several breeds of dog used for hunting typically having large drooping ears
3. v. pursue or chase relentlessly