hunt
verb (used with object)
to chase or search for (game or other wild animals) for the purpose of catching or killing.
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Hunut.
hunt
1 American
[huhnt]
/ hʌnt /
verb (used with object)
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hunts,
present (3rd person singular)
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hunted,
past participle, past
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hunting
present participle
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to chase or search for (game or other wild animals) for the purpose of catching or killing.
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to pursue with force, hostility, etc., in order to capture (often followed bydown ).
They hunted him down and hanged him.
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to search for; seek; endeavor to obtain or find (often followed by up orout ).
to hunt up the most promising candidates for the position.
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to search (a place) thoroughly.
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to scour (an area) in pursuit of game.
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to use or direct (a horse, hound, etc.) in chasing game.
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Change Ringing. to alter the place of (a bell) in a hunt.
verb (used without object)
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hunts,
present (3rd person singular)
-
hunted,
past participle, past
-
hunting
present participle
-
to engage in the pursuit, capture, or killing of wild animals for food or in sport.
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to make a search or quest (often followed by for orafter ).
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Change Ringing. to alter the place of a bell in its set according to certain rules.
noun
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hunts
plural
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an act or practice of hunting game or other wild animals.
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a search; a seeking or endeavor to find.
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a pursuit.
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a group of persons associated for the purpose of hunting; an association of hunters.
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an area hunted over.
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Change Ringing. a regularly varying order of permutations in the ringing of a group of from five to twelve bells.
Hunt
2
American
[huhnt]
/ hʌnt /
noun
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(James Henry) Leigh 1784–1859, English essayist, poet, and editor.
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Richard Morris, 1828–95, U.S. architect.
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(William) Holman 1827–1910, English painter.
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William Morris, 1824–79, U.S. painter (brother of Richard Morris Hunt).
hunt
1
British
/ hʌnt /
verb
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to seek out and kill or capture (game or wild animals) for food or sport
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to look (for); search (for)
to hunt for a book
to hunt up a friend
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(tr) to use (hounds, horses, etc) in the pursuit of wild animals, game, etc
to hunt a pack of hounds
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(tr) to search or draw (country) to hunt wild animals, game, etc
to hunt the parkland
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to track or chase diligently, esp so as to capture
to hunt down a criminal
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(tr; usually passive) to persecute; hound
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(intr) (of a gauge indicator, engine speed, etc) to oscillate about a mean value or position
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(intr) (of an aircraft, rocket, etc) to oscillate about a flight path
noun
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the act or an instance of hunting
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chase or search, esp of animals or game
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the area of a hunt
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a party or institution organized for the pursuit of wild animals or game, esp for sport
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the participants in or members of such a party or institution
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informal having a chance of success See also hunt down hunt up
that result keeps us in the hunt
Hunt
2
British
/ hʌnt /
noun
-
Henry , known as Orator Hunt . 1773–1835, British radical, who led the mass meeting that ended in the Peterloo Massacre (1819)
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( William ) Holman. 1827–1910, British painter; a founder of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood (1848)
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James. 1947–93, British motor-racing driver: world champion 1976
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( Henry Cecil ) John , Baron. 1910–98, British army officer and mountaineer. He planned and led the expedition that first climbed Mount Everest (1953)
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( 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
hunt
Idioms
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
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outhuntverb (used with object)
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overhuntverb (used with object)
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huntableadjective
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unhuntableadjective
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unhuntedadjective
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huntedlyadverb
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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huntsimple
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huntssimple
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have huntedperfect
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has huntedperfect
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am huntingprogressive
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are huntingprogressive
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is huntingprogressive
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have been huntingperfect progressive
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has been huntingperfect progressive
Past
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huntedsimple
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had huntedperfect
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was huntingprogressive
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were huntingprogressive
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had been huntingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of hunt
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
Explanation
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."
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
Eric Bana plays Avner, a Mossad operative sent to hunt down the Palestinians whom Israel holds responsible for the 1972 Munich Olympics massacre.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 11, 2026
The damage from Wendy’s infection meant she would never have been able to hunt or scavenge again and would instead require a soft food diet for the rest of her life.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 9, 2026
It’s been years since her last job hunt, and Carr is learning how difficult the search is now — and how fakes and scammers seem more believable and prevalent.
From MarketWatch ● Sep. 5, 2026
Customers at Nairobi supermarkets on the hunt for milk told the BBC they were worried about rising costs.
From BBC ● Sep. 4, 2026
I called to my father to give up the hunt.
From "Black Star, Bright Dawn" by Scott O'Dell
“High Value Target: The Hunt for Saddam” is not a documentary; it’s not a chase film.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 10, 2026
There’s no harm in that per se, but you’ll have to forgive my irritation with Sudeikis, Lawrence, Hunt and fellow executive producer and showrunner Joe Kelly’s clumsiness with the team’s most complicated working relationship.
From Salon ● Sep. 10, 2026
Hunt finished furthest up the results list of any of the Britons in action.
From BBC ● Sep. 4, 2026
On Thursday he went after Fox News correspondent Jonathan Hunt during a broadcast, accusing him of inaccurately describing the current state of the war, and telling Fox anchor Bret Baier to “straighten out” his reporters.
From Salon ● Aug. 29, 2026
Reverend Hunt tells us the story of creation, how God made the world and all things in it in six days, and rested on the seventh day, the Sabbath.
From "Blood on the River" by Elisa Carbone
And Awaze, the European holiday-rental group, says searches for "escape the heat" rose three-fold in the past three months, while hunts for "coolcation" were up more than four-fold.
From BBC ● Aug. 26, 2026
The Colosseum, the largest amphitheatre in the world, was built in the first century and was used to host events like animal hunts and gladiatorial games.
From Barron's ● Aug. 14, 2026
Many people are sticking with their current job, knowing that unemployed workers have to trudge through job hunts that last for months.
From MarketWatch ● Aug. 10, 2026
With dozens of actors who lead guests through scavenger hunts, puzzles and conversations, Knott’s Berry Farm’s ‘Ghost Town Alive!’ can’t be replicated.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 24, 2026
Starry hunts in a drawer and finds a pair of shears.
From "You Bring the Distant Near" by Mitali Perkins
Greenlanders and other Inuit peoples have hunted seals for their meat and skin for centuries, but international bans have collapsed sealskin markets.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 7, 2026
For tens of thousands of years, Aboriginal Australians have hunted these majestic animals for food.
From Salon ● Aug. 30, 2026
"In the marketplaces you basically only find pangolin scales, not the whole animals, which makes it hard to know which species are being hunted and where they are coming from," says Feijó.
From Science Daily ● Aug. 26, 2026
He also used the speech to criticise the media, calling her the "most hunted person of the modern age" and pledged to protect Prince William and Prince Harry and prevent them suffering a similar fate.
From BBC ● Aug. 18, 2026
Men often hunted and trapped for food and to earn a little money.
From "In the Shadow of Liberty" by Kenneth C. Davis
Police were on Tuesday hunting for two thieves who escaped with two Renoir paintings from a museum in southern France, after abandoning two others in its garden as they fled, a mayor said.
From Barron's ● Sep. 8, 2026
It suggests both a close evolutionary relationship with true cheetahs and a similarly specialized hunting strategy, neither of which is supported by the new evidence.
From Science Daily ● Sep. 8, 2026
Portman Road is certainly a happy hunting ground for Isak.
From BBC ● Sep. 4, 2026
Doctors running the trials are hunting for answers of their own, particularly around what sets the paused therapies apart from similar ones already in wide use for oncology.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 3, 2026
As they got closer to the one-room hunting shack, Owen’s excitement dwindled.
From "Two Degrees" by Alan Gratz
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.
