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hunt definition

hunt (hunt)

transitive verb

  1. to go out to kill or catch (game) for food or sport
  2. to search eagerly or carefully for; try to find
    1. to pursue; chase; drive
    2. to hound; harry; persecute
    1. to go through (a woods, fields, etc.) in pursuit of game
    2. to search (a place) carefully
  3. to use (dogs or horses) in chasing game

Etymology: ME hunten < OE huntian, prob. < base of hentan, to seize < ? IE *kend-, var. of *kent- > Goth (fra)hinthan, to seize: see hand

intransitive verb

  1. to go out after game; take part in the chase
  2. to search; seek
  3. Bell Ringing to change the order of bells in a hunt

noun

  1. the act of hunting; the chase
  2. a group of people who hunt together
  3. a district covered in hunting
  4. a search
  5. Bell Ringing a series of regularly varying sequences in ringing a group of from five to twelve bells
hunt Idioms

hunt down

  1. to pursue until successful in catching or killing
  2. to search for until successful in finding

hunt up

  1. to hunt for; search for
  2. to find by searching

in the hunt

Informal having a chance to win a competition

Webster's New World College Dictionary Copyright © 2009 by Wiley Publishing, Inc., Cleveland, Ohio.
Used by arrangement with John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

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witch hunt139 years ago

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