hunt

verb

1. (ambitransitive)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.”

   “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.”

   “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.”

2. (ambitransitive)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.”

   “My idea of retirement was to hunt seashells, play golf, and do a lot of walking.”

3. (transitive)To drive; to chase; with down, from, away, etc.

   “to hunt down a criminal”

   “He was hunted from the parish.”

4. (transitive)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. (transitive)To use or traverse in pursuit of game.

   “He hunts the woods, or the country.”

6. (transitive)To move or shift the order of (a bell) in a regular course of changes.
7. (intransitive)To shift up and down in order regularly.
8. (intransitive)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.”

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.

name

1. (countable, uncountable)An English surname originating as an occupation for a hunter (for game, birds etc).
2. (countable, rare, uncountable)A male given name transferred from the surname.
3. (countable, uncountable)A placename
4. (countable, uncountable)A placename
5. (countable, uncountable)A placename
6. (abbreviation, alt-of, countable, ellipsis, uncountable)A placename