Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • intransitive verb To pursue (game) for food or sport.
  • intransitive verb To search through (an area) for prey.
  • intransitive verb To make use of (hounds, for example) in pursuing game.
  • intransitive verb To pursue intensively so as to capture or kill.
  • intransitive verb To seek out; search for.
  • intransitive verb To drive out forcibly, especially by harassing; chase away.
  • intransitive verb To pursue game.
  • intransitive verb To make a search; seek.
  • intransitive verb To yaw back and forth about a flight path, as if seeking a new direction or another angle of attack. Used of an aircraft, rocket, or space vehicle.
  • intransitive verb To rotate up and down or back and forth without being deflected by the pilot. Used of a control surface or a rocket motor in gimbals.
  • intransitive verb To oscillate about a selected value. Used of a machine, instrument, or system.
  • intransitive verb To swing back and forth; oscillate. Used of an indicator on a display or instrument panel.
  • noun The act or sport of hunting.
  • noun A hunting expedition or outing, usually with horses and hounds.
  • noun Those taking part in such an expedition or outing.
  • noun The hunting season for a particular animal.
  • noun A diligent search or pursuit.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • To chase, as wild animals, for the purpose of catching or killing; search for or follow after, as game.
  • To search after; pursue; follow closely.
  • To use, direct, or manage in the chase.
  • To pursue game or wild animals over; specifically, to pursue foxes over: as, the district was hunted by the foxhounds.
  • To follow the chase; pursue game or other wild animals.
  • To make a search or quest; seek: with for or after.
  • In bell-ringing, to alter the place of a bell in its set according to certain rules.
  • In mech., to jump back and forth instead of remaining steady.
  • noun The act of seeking for or chasing game or other wild animals for the purpose of catching or killing them; a pursuit; a chase.
  • noun A pack of hounds engaged in the chase.
  • noun An association of huntsmen: as, the Caledonian hunt.
  • noun The region of country hunted with hounds.
  • noun Game killed in the chase.
  • noun The act of seeking or searching for something; a search or inquisition.
  • noun In bell-ringing, a bell which is taken out of its order and then hunted by the others in the peal. See hunt, v. i., 3.
  • noun In electricity, the see-sawing, surging of speed, or oscillating which sometimes occurs in synchronous motors or other electrical apparatus.
  • noun One who hunts; a hunter; a huntsman.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • intransitive verb To follow the chase; to go out in pursuit of game; to course with hounds.
  • intransitive verb To seek; to pursue; to search; -- with for or after.
  • intransitive verb (Mach.) 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.
  • intransitive verb (Change Ringing) To shift up and down in order regularly.
  • intransitive verb [Obs.] to trace the scent backward in hunting, as a hound to go back on one's steps.
  • transitive verb 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.
  • transitive verb To search diligently after; to seek; to pursue; to follow; -- often with out or up
  • transitive verb To drive; to chase; -- with down, from, away, etc.
  • transitive verb To use or manage in the chase, as hounds.
  • transitive verb To use or traverse in pursuit of game.
  • transitive verb (Change Ringing) To move or shift the order of (a bell) in a regular course of changes.
  • noun The act or practice of chasing wild animals; chase; pursuit; search.
  • noun obsolete The game secured in the hunt.

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English hunten, from Old English huntian.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Middle English hunten, from Old English huntian ("to hunt"), from Proto-Germanic *huntōnan (“to hunt, capture”), from Proto-Indo-European *kend- (“to catch, seize”). Related to Old High German hunda ("booty"), Gothic 𐌷𐌿𐌽𐌸𐍃 (hunþs, "body of captives"), Old English hūþ ("plunder, booty, prey"), Old English hentan ("to catch, seize"). More at hent, hint.

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Examples

  • All these good teams have been eliminated from the title hunt because President Obama has failed to deliver on his promise to create a college football playoff.

    Redskins still in playoff hunt, but not TCU Joel Achenbach 2010

  • All these good teams have been eliminated from the title hunt because President Obama has failed to deliver on his promise to create a college football playoff.

    Redskins still in playoff hunt, but not TCU Joel Achenbach 2010

  • Chelsea kept themselves in the title hunt with this victory in a pulsating clash at Stamford Bridge.

    Man Utd vs Chelsea: Past Meetings 2009

  • Manchester United is very much in the title hunt in Europe.

    Manchester United to take double this year 2008

  • Vegas doggedly remained in the title hunt during Sunday's final round before his bold bid for a second consecutive PGA Tour title ended when he dumped his second shot into water at the par-five last.

    Reuters: Top News 2011

  • Hamilton retained second in the title hunt after a fourth place at Istanbul Park that the Englishman had to work hard for.

    BBC News - Home 2011

  • It was somehow fitting that he stayed in the title hunt with a 71 on Friday, leaving him in a group of four only a shot behind leaders Darren Clarke of Northern Ireland and Lucas Glover of the United States.

    News - latimes.com 2011

  • After missing his first five cuts, Stallings was in the title hunt at the Transitions Championship until a late double bogey.

    All Stories 2011

  • FSU won't ever dominate the conference the way it did during its first 10 years in the league, but as long as Fisher keeps doing what he's doing, the Seminoles should be in the title hunt most years.

    SI.com 2011

  • Rather than being in the title hunt, Wenger is now looking over his shoulder at Spurs and Manchester City, with the aim now of simply hanging onto third place.

    The Independent - Frontpage RSS Feed 2010

Comments

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  • Judging by the top six definitions, WeirdNet has ambitions to be a biographer.

    January 26, 2009

  • Mike's Blender: 'The Japanese don't actually pick fruit, they hunt it. Momo-gari (peach hunting), mikan-gari (orange hunting), ichigo-gari (strawberry hunting), etc, the -gari ending actually means 'to hunt' and stems from days long past when fruit was more dangerous and fought back.

    'Grape hunting season is just finishing up, so if you're still thinking of slaying a few bunches for the dinner table you'd better hurry up and get out there.'

    Actually, this seems to sit well enough with English 'hunt for'; it's when you just turn it into fruit hunting that it begins to sound odd.

    September 14, 2009

  • See also musquash-hunter.

    September 14, 2009

  • Not the infamous Mike Hunt, is it?

    Would that fruit fought back. The last punnet of strawberries I bought committed hairy hara-kiri in the rotter, whoops, crisper, within a day.

    September 14, 2009

  • Spartan grape-hunters were told by their mamas either to return carrying their shields full of grapes, or being carried dead upon them, so I imagine that Spartan grapes are an especially ferocious bunch.

    September 15, 2009