hunt
Language: English
Part of speech: verb
Pronunciation: ipa: /hʌnt/
rhymes: -ʌnt
Forms: form: hunts
form: hunting
form: hunted
form: hunted
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.
Senses: examples: text: State Wildlife Management areas often offer licensed hunters the opportunity to hunt on public lands.
text: Her uncle will go out and hunt for deer, now that it is open season.
ref: 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Genesis 27:5–passageEsau went to the field to hunt for venison.:
text: 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.
ref: 1835, Alfred Tennyson, “Locksley Hall”, in Poems. […], volume II, London: Edward Moxon, […], published 1842, →OCLC, page 100:
text: Either the bird will be downgraded to "threatened" status — which means it can be hunted — or it will be declared a nonspecies, as has already happened to all its taxonomic kissing cousins.
ref: 1981, Field & Stream, volume 86, number 5, page 107:
ref: 2010, Backyard deer hunting: converting deer to dinner for pennies per pound, →ISBN, page 10:
glosses: To find or search for an animal in the wild with the intention of killing the animal for its meat or for sport.
examples: text: The little girl was hunting for shells on the beach.
text: The police are hunting for evidence.
text: He after honour hunts, I after love.
ref: c. 1590–1591 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Two Gentlemen of Verona”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene i]:
text: 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.
ref: 1913, Joseph C[rosby] Lincoln, chapter I, in Mr. Pratt’s Patients, New York, N.Y.; London: D[aniel] Appleton and Company, →OCLC:
text: My idea of retirement was to hunt seashells, play golf, and do a lot of walking.
ref: 2004, Prill Boyle, Defying Gravity: A Celebration of Late-Blooming Women, →ISBN, page 119:
text: What kind of woman came to an island and stayed there through a violent storm and then got up the next morning to hunt seashells? She had fine, delicate features with high cheekbones and the greenest eyes he'd ever seen.
ref: 2011, Ann Major, Nobody's Child, →ISBN:
glosses: To try to find something; search (for).
examples: text: to hunt down a criminal
text: He was hunted from the parish.
glosses: To drive; to chase; with down, from, away, etc.
examples: text: Did you hunt that pony last week?
text: He hunts a pack of dogs better than any man in the country.
ref: 1711 July 15 (Gregorian calendar), [Joseph Addison; Richard Steele et al.], “WEDNESDAY, July 4, 1711”, in The Spectator, number 104; republished in Alexander Chalmers, editor, The Spectator; a New Edition, […], volume II, New York, N.Y.: D[aniel] Appleton & Company, 1853, →OCLC:
glosses: To use or manage (dogs, horses, etc.) in hunting.
examples: text: He hunts the woods, or the country.
glosses: To use or traverse in pursuit of game.
qualifier: bell-ringing
glosses: To move or shift the order of (a bell) in a regular course of changes.
qualifier: bell-ringing
glosses: To shift up and down in order regularly.
examples: text: […] after which the inertia of the camera causes the motor to hunt with fluctuating speed.
ref: 1995, Bernard Wilkie, Special Effects in Television, page 174:
topics: engineering
natural-sciences
physical-sciences
glosses: 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.
Derived terms: book-hunt
bookhunter
bowhunt
headhunt
head-hunt
house-hunt
Hunt
huntable
hunt-and-peck
hunt and peck
hunt down
hunted
huntee
Hunter
hunter
hunteress
hunting
hunt out
huntress
Huntress
Huntsman
huntsman
hunt the gowk
hunt the slipper
hunt up
hunt where the ducks are
hunt where the ducks were
job-hunt
outhunt
overhunt
proverbs hunt in pairs
run with the hare and hunt with the hounds
snark hunt
spider-hunting wasp
still-hunt
that dog won't hunt
that old dog won't hunt
thrill of the hunt
trophy-hunt
you can't run with the hare and hunt with the hounds