Hunt /(hŭnt)/

Hunt

v. t.

imp. & p. p. Hunted; p. pr. & vb. n. Hunting

  1. To search for or follow after, as game or wild animals; to chase; to pursue for the purpose of catching or killing; to follow with dogs or guns for sport or exercise; as, to hunt a deer.
    Like a dog, he hunts in dreams.
  2. To search diligently after; to seek; to pursue; to follow; -- often with out or up; as, to hunt up the facts; to hunt out evidence.
    Evil shall hunt the violent man to overthrow him.
    — Ps. cxl. 11.
  3. To drive; to chase; -- with down, from, away, etc.; as, to hunt down a criminal; he was hunted from the parish.
  4. To use or manage in the chase, as hounds.
    He hunts a pack of dogs.
  5. To use or traverse in pursuit of game; as, he hunts the woods, or the country.
  6. To move or shift the order of (a bell) in a regular course of changes. (Change Ringing)

Hunt

v. i.
  1. To follow the chase; to go out in pursuit of game; to course with hounds.
    Esau went to the field to hunt for venison.
    — Gen. xxvii. 5.
  2. To seek; to pursue; to search; -- with for or after.
    He after honor hunts, I after love.
  3. To be in a state of instability of movement or forced oscillation, as a governor which has a large movement of the balls for small change of load, an arc-lamp clutch mechanism which moves rapidly up and down with variations of current, or the like; also, to seesaw, as a pair of alternators working in parallel. (Mach.)
  4. To shift up and down in order regularly. (Change Ringing)

Phrases & Compounds
To hunt counter
to trace the scent backward in hunting, as a hound to go back on one's steps.

Hunt

n.
  1. The act or practice of chasing wild animals; chase; pursuit; search.
    The hunt is up; the morn is bright and gray.
  2. The game secured in the hunt. [Obs.]
  3. A pack of hounds. [Obs.]
  4. An association of huntsmen.
  5. A district of country hunted over.
    Every landowner within the hunt.