pursuit
[ per-soot ]
/ pərˈsut /
noun
the act of pursuing: in pursuit of the fox.
an effort to secure or attain; quest: the pursuit of happiness.
any occupation, pastime, or the like, in which a person is engaged regularly or customarily: literary pursuits.
RELATED CONTENT
Lexical Investigations: Happiness“The pursuit of Happiness” was thought to be an unalienable right by the writers of the US Declaration of Independence. However, in 1776, the definition of happiness evoked a different meaning than it does today. When the framers of this historic document wrote about “Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness,” what exactly did they mean by “happiness”? The term happiness comes from the Old Norse term …
RELATED WORDS
hunt, quest, inquiry, career, undertaking, accomplishment, occupation, activity, hunting, seeking, trail, stalk, following, trailing, tracking, pursual, pursuance, do, business, work
Nearby words
Origin of pursuit
SYNONYMS FOR pursuit
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019
Examples from the Web for pursuit
pursuit
/ (pəˈsjuːt) /
noun
- the act of pursuing, chasing, or striving after
- (as modifier)a pursuit plane
an occupation, hobby, or pastime
(in cycling) a race in which the riders set off at intervals along the track and attempt to overtake each other
Word Origin for pursuit
C14: from Old French poursieute, from poursivre to prosecute, pursue
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
pursuit
late 14c., "persecution," also "action of pursuit," from Anglo-French purseute, from Old French porsuite "a search, pursuit" (14c., Modern French poursuite), from porsivre (see pursue). Sense of "one's profession, recreation, etc." first recorded 1520s. As a type of track cycling race from 1938.
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper