hunt
verbnouncommon in dialogue
- //hʌnt//
- //hʊnt//
To find or search for an animal in the wild with the intention of killing the animal for its meat or for sport.
verb
- 1
To find or search for an animal in the wild with the intention of killing the animal for its meat or for sport.
State Wildlife Management areas often offer licensed hunters the opportunity to hunt on public lands.
Her uncle will go out and hunt for deer, now that it is open season.
[object Object]
Like a dog, he hunts in dreams, and thou art staring at the wall, / Where the dying night-lamp flickers, and the shadows rise and fall.
- 2
To try to find something; search (for).
The little girl was hunting for shells on the beach.
The police are hunting for evidence.
He after honour hunts, I after love.
I stumbled along through the young pines and huckleberry bushes. Pretty soon I struck into a sort of path that, I cal'lated, might lead to the road I was hunting for. It twisted and turned, and, the first thing I knew, made a sudden bend around a bunch of bayberry scrub and opened out into a big clear space like a lawn.
- 3
To drive; to chase; with down, from, away, etc.
to hunt down a criminal
He was hunted from the parish.
- 4
To use or manage (dogs, horses, etc.) in hunting.
Did you hunt that pony last week?
He hunts a pack of dogs better than any man in the country.
- 5
To use or traverse in pursuit of game.
He hunts the woods, or the country.
- 6
To move or shift the order of (a bell) in a regular course of changes.
- 7
To shift up and down in order regularly.
- 8
To be in a state of instability of movement or forced oscillation, as a governor which has a large movement of the balls for small change of load, an arc-lamp clutch mechanism which moves rapidly up and down with variations of current, etc.; also, to seesaw, as a pair of alternators working in parallel.
[…] after which the inertia of the camera causes the motor to hunt with fluctuating speed.
Etymology
From Middle English hunten, from Old English huntian (“to hunt”), from Proto-West Germanic *huntōn (“to hunt, capture”), possibly from Proto-Indo-European *ḱent- (“to catch, seize”). Related to Old High German hunda (“booty”), Gothic 𐌷𐌿𐌽𐌸𐍃 (hunþs, “body of captives”), Old English hūþ (“plunder, booty, prey”), Old English hentan (“to catch, seize”). More at hent, hint. In some areas read as a collective form of hound by folk etymology.
noun
- 1
The act of hunting.
Through male bonding, the subculture of the hunt caught up in the mystique of the chase, the hunting party became a military force, and men discovered that they need not stop at defense: they could go out to hunt for other people's wealth.
- 2
A hunting expedition.
- 3
An organization devoted to hunting, or the people belonging to it.
- 4
A pack of hunting dogs.
the rim at the base has a hunt of dogs and stags on a running scroll
I've heard that back in the days of fox hunting, kennels would keep a “hunt” of foxhounds up in the 50 - 100 dog range.
The baying hunt with gathering speed
Forms
- plural
- hunts
- past tense
- hunted
- past participle
- hunted
- present participle
- hunting
- third person singular
- hunts
hunt · To find or search for an animal in the wild with the intention of killing the animal for its meat or for sport.
Hunt · An English surname originating as an occupation for a hunter…hunted · Being the subject of a hunt.hunter · One who hunts game for sport or for food; a huntsman or…