rock hound
1
6.8
- noun
- /rɑk haʊnd/
- US
:
coleccionista de rocas
- By the 1950s and 1960s, however, people of more modest means had joined the collecting ranks, often searching for specimens on those public lands where "rock hounds" were allowed.
Examples
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I've seen some pretty big meteors, but never like this one or so close, and I have never heard one. I'm a fossil and rock hound and love seeing this stuff in action.
Blog text (24) -
Damn it, Haley, how could you shack up with that damned rock hound after what we had together? "What I do is my own business," she shot back.
Fiction book (2000) -
"That's funny for a rock hound like me."
Fiction book (2001) -
Geologists and rock hounds arrived with their wives.
Fiction book (1990) -
"Piss off, rock hound," the exec growled.
Fiction book (2000) -
I'm going to give the photographers the benefit of the doubt and suggest that they were amateur geologists or rock hounds and were capturing the image because they observed what they believed might have been a unique intrusion in the limestone and wanted to preserve the image for further evaluation at home.
Blog text (22) -
As a rock hound, she spent every weekend searching for unique minerals in the mountains.
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Rock hounds often join each other on field trips to discover new rock formations.
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After years of collecting, he proudly displayed his rock hound collection in a special cabinet.
Synonyms
137
3.0
A person who gathers and keeps special items like stamps
How Serious
Surface Forms
Morphology
rock + hound
The compound combines 'rock' (clear) with 'hound', whose literal sense is 'dog' and which is frequently extended metaphorically to mean 'one who pursues or is obsessed with' (as in 'news hound'). A B1 learner who knows both words might infer someone who pursues or is very into rocks, but the specific sense 'collector/hobbyist' is a conventionalized extension that may not be fully predictable without exposure.
Etymology
Rock hound combines rock and hound, where a 'hound' is a dog that hunts. People who search the ground for interesting stones were like hunting dogs, so rock hound means 'a person who collects rocks'.