hunt

[ huhnt ]

/ hʌnt /

SEE MORE SYNONYMS FOR hunt ON THESAURUS.COM

verb (used with object)

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 by down): They hunted him down and hanged him.

to search for; seek; endeavor to obtain or find (often followed by up or out): 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.

verb (used without object)

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 or after).

Change Ringing. to alter the place of a bell in its set according to certain rules.

noun

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.

Nearby words

hunky, hunky-dory, hunner's ulcer, hunnish, huns, hunt, hunt and peck, hunt board, hunt button, hunt down, hunt the slipper

Origin of hunt

before 1000; (v.) Middle English hunten, Old English huntian, derivative of hunta hunter, akin to hentan to pursue; (noun) Middle English, derivative of the v.

SYNONYMS FOR hunt

1 pursue, track.

SEE MORE SYNONYMS FOR hunt ON THESAURUS.COM

Related forms

hunt·a·ble, adjectivehunt·ed·ly, adverbout·hunt, verb (used with object)o·ver·hunt, verb (used with object)

un·hunt·a·ble, adjectiveun·hunt·ed, adjective

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019

Examples from the Web for hunted

At that time, pre -9/11, the links were more subtle and had to be hunted down.
ISIS, Boko Haram, and the Growing Role of Human Trafficking in 21st Century Terrorism|Louise I. Shelley|December 26, 2014|DAILY BEAST
Middle-class Congolese like himself, called “évolué,” or “evolved,” were hunted down for having ties with the Europeans.
‘Argo’ in the Congo: The Ghosts of the Stanleyville Hostage Crisis|Nina Strochlic|November 23, 2014|DAILY BEAST
We saw Tyreese in this episode caught in the middle of the “hunt or be hunted” dilemma.
Andrew Lincoln Wants Rick to End With Johnny Cash and the Sunset|Melissa Leon|October 14, 2014|DAILY BEAST
If you were in the zombie apocalypse, would you be a hunter, the hunted, or Tyreese?
Andrew Lincoln Wants Rick to End With Johnny Cash and the Sunset|Melissa Leon|October 14, 2014|DAILY BEAST

LGBTs in Russia have "never been so under siege," says Steele, "and so hunted."
The ‘Hunted’ Gays of Putin’s Russia: Vicious Vigilantes and State Bigotry Close Up|Tim Teeman|October 6, 2014|DAILY BEAST
I have hunted out a precedent for this unceremonious address.
Life of Lord Byron, Vol. IV|Thomas Moore
For a time he served in the English army in India, and hunted the big game of those regions.
Journeys Through Bookland, Vol. 6|Charles H. Sylvester
There they sat an hour or two and uttered their cries, and there they were hunted up and fed by the parents.
Little Brothers of the Air|Olive Thorne Miller
If a man helps hisself to a pore, sick dogie he's hunted down!
The Boy Scouts Book of Campfire Stories|Various
She flashed round like a hunted creature at bay, her eyes blazing a wild defiance into the mocking eyes opposite.
The Safety Curtain, and Other Stories|Ethel M. Dell

British Dictionary definitions for hunted (1 of 3)

hunted

/ (ˈhʌntɪd) /

adjective

harassed and wornhe has a hunted look

British Dictionary definitions for hunted (2 of 3)

hunt

/ (hʌnt) /

verb

to seek out and kill or capture (game or wild animals) for food or sport

(intr often foll by for) 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, etcto hunt a pack of hounds

(tr) to search or draw (country) to hunt wild animals, game, etcto hunt the parkland

(tr often foll by down) to track or chase diligently, esp so as to captureto 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

noun

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

in the hunt informal having a chance of successthat result keeps us in the hunt See also hunt down, hunt up

Derived Formshuntedly, adverb

Word Origin for hunt

Old English huntian; related to Old English hentan, Old Norse henda to grasp

British Dictionary definitions for hunted (3 of 3)

Hunt

/ (hʌnt) /

noun

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

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Word Origin and History for hunted (1 of 2)

hunt

Old English huntian "chase game," related to hentan "to seize," from Proto-Germanic *huntojan (cf. Gothic hinþan "to seize, capture," Old High German hunda "booty"), from PIE *kend-.

General sense of "search diligently" (for anything) is first recorded c.1200. Related: Hunted; hunting. Happy hunting-grounds "Native American afterlife paradise" is from "Last of the Mohicans" (1826).

Word Origin and History for hunted (1 of 2)

hunt

early 12c., from hunt (v.). Meaning "body of persons associated for the purpose of hunting with a pack of hounds" is first recorded 1570s.

Idioms and Phrases with hunted

hunt

see happy hunting ground; high and low, (hunt); run with (the hare, hunt with the hounds).

hunt

verb (used with object)

verb (used without object)

noun

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Origin of hunt

Examples from the Web for hunted

British Dictionary definitions for hunted (1 of 3)

hunted

adjective

British Dictionary definitions for hunted (2 of 3)

hunt

verb

noun

Word Origin for hunt

British Dictionary definitions for hunted (3 of 3)

Hunt

noun

Word Origin and History for hunted (1 of 2)

hunt

Word Origin and History for hunted (1 of 2)

hunt

Idioms and Phrases with hunted

hunt