to chase or search for (game or other wild animals) for the purpose of catching or killing.
to pursue with force, hostility, etc., in order to capture (often followed bydown ).
They hunted him down and hanged him.
to search for; seek; endeavor to obtain or find (often followed by up orout ).
to hunt up the most promising candidates for the position.
to search (a place) thoroughly.
to scour (an area) in pursuit of game.
to use or direct (a horse, hound, etc.) in chasing game.
Change Ringing. to alter the place of (a bell) in a hunt.
to engage in the pursuit, capture, or killing of wild animals for food or in sport.
to make a search or quest (often followed by for orafter ).
Change Ringing. to alter the place of a bell in its set according to certain rules.
an act or practice of hunting game or other wild animals.
a search; a seeking or endeavor to find.
a pursuit.
a group of persons associated for the purpose of hunting; an association of hunters.
an area hunted over.
Change Ringing. a regularly varying order of permutations in the ringing of a group of from five to twelve bells.
(James Henry) Leigh 1784–1859, English essayist, poet, and editor.
Richard Morris, 1828–95, U.S. architect.
(William) Holman 1827–1910, English painter.
William Morris, 1824–79, U.S. painter (brother of Richard Morris Hunt).
to seek out and kill or capture (game or wild animals) for food or sport
to look (for); search (for)
to hunt for a book
to hunt up a friend
(tr) to use (hounds, horses, etc) in the pursuit of wild animals, game, etc
to hunt a pack of hounds
(tr) to search or draw (country) to hunt wild animals, game, etc
to hunt the parkland
to track or chase diligently, esp so as to capture
to hunt down a criminal
(tr; usually passive) to persecute; hound
(intr) (of a gauge indicator, engine speed, etc) to oscillate about a mean value or position
(intr) (of an aircraft, rocket, etc) to oscillate about a flight path
the act or an instance of hunting
chase or search, esp of animals or game
the area of a hunt
a party or institution organized for the pursuit of wild animals or game, esp for sport
the participants in or members of such a party or institution
informal having a chance of success See also hunt down hunt up
that result keeps us in the hunt
Henry , known as Orator Hunt . 1773–1835, British radical, who led the mass meeting that ended in the Peterloo Massacre (1819)
( William ) Holman. 1827–1910, British painter; a founder of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood (1848)
James. 1947–93, British motor-racing driver: world champion 1976
( Henry Cecil ) John , Baron. 1910–98, British army officer and mountaineer. He planned and led the expedition that first climbed Mount Everest (1953)
( James Henry ) Leigh (liː). 1784–1859, British poet and essayist: a founder of The Examiner (1808) in which he promoted the work of Keats and Shelley
First recorded before 1000; (for the verb) Middle English hunten, Old English huntian, derivative of hunta “hunter,” akin to hentan “to pursue”; noun derivative of the verb
To hunt is to track and kill an animal for fun or food. In Italy, they use pigs to hunt truffles. In the US, they use shotguns to hunt deer. Some humans hunt animals with a gun or a bow and arrow, and some animals hunt smaller animals — the way a wolf hunts rabbits or a cat hunts birds. You can hunt in a non-lethal way as well, like when you hunt all over your house for your lost car keys, or your little brother hunts for you during a game of hide-and-seek. The Old English root of hunt is huntian, "chase game."
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
When temperatures rise, the females abandon their pups to hunt for food, he explained.
From Barron's ● Jul. 27, 2026
Dogs were brought out on leads and began to hunt hares.
From BBC ● Jul. 25, 2026
Mr. Jones describes a freshwater snail that, sensing a predator, instinctively climbs or descends depending on where the perceived threat tends to hunt.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 24, 2026
The hunt is on for the magic artificial-intelligence model that will enable investors to beat the stock market.
From MarketWatch ● Jul. 24, 2026
They were clothed for the hunt in scarlet coats, white trousers, and neat black caps.
From "The Unseen Guest" by Maryrose Wood
Hunt was the intellectual anchor of that leg, which is why his resignation is news.
From MarketWatch ● Jul. 27, 2026
Ansari said she learned only this week that the brothers had traveled to D.C. for meetings, including one with Rep. Wesley Hunt, R-Texas.
From Salon ● Jul. 25, 2026
The first volunteer in the world - a 37-year-old UK man called Ed Hunt - has received an experimental vaccine against the Ebola virus.
From BBC ● Jul. 24, 2026
According to Oseman, Locke and Connor were also heavily involved in selecting a new intimacy coordinator, Robbie Taylor Hunt.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 17, 2026
The shoes are too big—passed on from an older boy who died at the orphanage last month—but Reverend Hunt says I can’t go barefoot in the New World.
From "Blood on the River" by Elisa Carbone
With his trusty bow and arrow, he hunts game and safeguards his twin sister Asa – who, for unexplained reasons, resides behind bars in a dark cell.
From Salon ● Jul. 18, 2026
This low-hire, low-fire dynamic and lengthy job hunts have spooked many workers, who are now opting to cling to their jobs instead of making a jump.
From MarketWatch ● Jun. 5, 2026
Tiffany Kahl, who owns a tanning and wellness salon in Pennsylvania, hunts business-class travel deals as a hobby and subscribes to Thrifty Traveler.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 22, 2026
We drove on, and Dantzler told stories of dove hunts in the grove, of outsize characters of the old citrus elite.
From Slate ● Apr. 20, 2026
Compared to its brethren around the world, Clovis society, with its putative focus on massive, exterminating hunts, would have been an anomaly.
From "1491" by Charles C. Mann
The man is Paul, who does not know how he has come to be in this world but finds himself hunted by a mad duke who wants his magical technologies.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 10, 2026
Aang befriended Zuko, an exiled Fire Nation prince who at first hunted Aang to regain his father’s approval before joining his quarry’s mission to restore peace.
From Salon ● Jul. 8, 2026
Since Swift and Kelce announced their engagement in August, fans have obsessively hunted for clues about where the two megastars will wed.
From BBC ● Jun. 25, 2026
Smaller, mobile groups that hunted opportunistically were increasingly being replaced by larger, more coordinated groups.
From Science Daily ● Jun. 11, 2026
“Anya,” Ivan said with a grin on his face, “have you ever hunted a dragon?”
From Anya and the Dragon by Sofiya Pasternack
Friends of Big Bear Valley, a nonprofit that operates the nest livestream, has long argued that the roughly 63-acre parcel is a critical hunting ground for the local eagles.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 28, 2026
I know apartment hunting can be overwhelming, especially when you’re doing it from a different city, and hiring a broker might seem like a convenience that’s well worth the cost.
From MarketWatch ● Jul. 27, 2026
Extensive personal use of a company-owned hunting ranch.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 25, 2026
Tasked with hunting for software vulnerabilities and given no guardrails, the models broke out onto the open internet and attacked Hugging Face, a site where developers store and share code.
From Barron's ● Jul. 24, 2026
Now Penelope understood: The call came from Lord Fredrick’s hunting horn, and its hooting, leaping cry was the sound that signaled the start of the hunt.
From "The Unseen Guest" by Maryrose Wood
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
