See Also: hunt(2)(dictionary)
hunt(1)(dictionary)
hunt(dictionary)
Hunt(medicine)
hunt's-up(dictionary)
hunt 1, verb(dictionary)
witch-hunt(dictionary)
Hunt Club(tourism)
treasure hunt(dictionary)
witch-hunt(1)(dictionary)

hunt (iou)



hunt verb.
[Old English huntian, from Germanic weak grade of base of HENT verb.]
verb intrans. & trans. Pursue (wild animals or game) for food or sport; spec. (chiefly in England) pursue (esp. foxes) with hounds; N. Amer. shoot (game). Also, of an animal: pursue (prey). OE.
J. Buchan He used to hunt with the Pytchley. T. F. Powys An old dog-fox who had been hunted many times before. J. Raban The bustards..were hunted with falcons.
a. verb intrans. Make a diligent or energetic search, look about. (Foll. by for, after.) ME.
E. M. Forster She hunted in the grass for her knitting-needle. C. Stead She hunted high and low and found nothing but peanut-butter jars.
b. verb trans. Make a diligent or energetic search for, look eagerly for. Now chiefly US. LME.
A. Tyler I'm hunting Oliver Jamison...You know him?
c. verb intrans. Telephony. Of a selector or switch: search automatically for a free line (and make connection with it). (Foll. by for a line, over lines.) E20.
verb trans. Drive away or from a place, etc., by pursuit or harassment. ME.
b. fig. Pursue vexatiously; pester, dog. L16.
N. Hawthorne These pests had hunted the two travellers at every stage of their journey.
verb trans. Scour (a district) in pursuit of game, esp. foxes. LME.
G. J. Whyte-Melville When he..hunted the Cottesmore country.
verb trans. Follow up (a trail) in the manner of a hound. L16.
J. Tyndall I hunted the seams still farther up the glacier.
verb trans. Direct (hounds) in a hunt; ride (a horse) in a hunt. E17.
verb trans. & intrans. In change-ringing: alter the position of (a bell), (of a bell) have its position altered, through a fixed succession of changes. (Foll. by up, down.) L17.
verb intrans. (Of a generator, engine, etc.) run alternately too fast and too slow; gen. (of any machine, system, etc.) oscillate (undesirably) about a desired speed, position, or state. L19.
Phrases, & with adverbs in specialized senses: hunt away NZ (of a dog) drive sheep forward. hunt counter: see COUNTER adverb. hunt down (a) pursue or search for relentlessly until caught or apprehended; (b) NZ drive (sheep) down from higher ground. hunt out drive from cover by hunting; fig. bring to light by persistent searching. hunt riot: see RIOT noun. hunt the fox: see FOX noun. hunt up search energetically for until one finds.
Comb. (in names of various games): hunt the hare = fox and hounds s.v. FOX noun; hunt the lady a card-game of the whist family; hunt the slipper a game in which all the players but one sit in a ring and pass a slipper covertly from one to another, the remaining player having to find the player in possession of it; hunt the thimble a game in which one player hides a thimble which the other players then have to locate; hunt the whistle a game in which a player is blindfolded and is told to look for a whistle, which has actually been fastened to his or her own clothing.
huntable adjective M19.
hunted adjective that is hunted; looking or behaving as if being pursued, worn and harassed: L16.