Etymology From Middle English hunten, from Old English huntian (“to hunt”), from Proto-West Germanic *huntōn (“to hunt, capture”), possibly from Proto-Indo-European *ḱent- (“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. In some areas read as a collective form of hound by folk etymology.
Ambitransitive To find or search for an animal in the wild with the intention of killing the animal for its meat or for sport.
State Wildlife Management areas often offer licensed hunters the opportunity to hunt on public lands.
Her uncle will go out and hunt for deer, now that it is open season.
2 more examples
Like a dog, he hunts in dreams, and thou art staring at the wall, / Where the dying night-lamp flickers, and the shadows rise and fall.1835, Alfred Tennyson, “Locksley Hall”, in Poems. […], volume II, London: Edward Moxon, […], published 1842, →OCLC, page 100:
Either the bird will be downgraded to "threatened" status — which means it can be hunted — or it will be declared a nonspecies, as has already happened to all its taxonomic kissing cousins.1981, Field & Stream, volume 86, number 5, page 107:
2
Ambitransitive To try to find something; search (for).
The little girl was hunting for shells on the beach.
The police are hunting for evidence.
4 more examples
He after honour hunts, I after love.c. 1590–1591 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Two Gentlemen of Verona”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene i]:
I stumbled along through the young pines and huckleberry bushes. Pretty soon I struck into a sort of path that, I cal'lated, might lead to the road I was hunting for. It twisted and turned, and, the first thing I knew, made a sudden bend around a bunch of bayberry scrub and opened out into a big clear space like a lawn.1913, Joseph C[rosby] Lincoln, chapter I, in Mr. Pratt’s Patients, New York, N.Y.; London: D[aniel] Appleton and Company, →OCLC:
My idea of retirement was to hunt seashells, play golf, and do a lot of walking.2004, Prill Boyle, Defying Gravity: A Celebration of Late-Blooming Women, →ISBN, page 119:
What kind of woman came to an island and stayed there through a violent storm and then got up the next morning to hunt seashells? She had fine, delicate features with high cheekbones and the greenest eyes he'd ever seen.2011, Ann Major, Nobody's Child, →ISBN:
3
To drive; to chase; with down, from, away, etc.
to hunt down a criminal
He was hunted from the parish.
4
To use or manage (dogs, horses, etc.) in hunting.
Did you hunt that pony last week?
He hunts a pack of dogs better than any man in the country.1711 July 14 (Gregorian calendar), [Joseph Addison; Richard Steele et al.], “TUESDAY, July 4, 1711”, in The Spectator, number 104; republished in Alexander Chalmers, editor, The Spectator; a New Edition, […], volume II, New York, N.Y.: D[aniel] Appleton & Company, 1853, →OCLC:
5
To use or traverse in pursuit of game.
He hunts the woods, or the country.
6
To move or shift the order of (a bell) in a regular course of changes.
7
To shift up and down in order regularly.
8
Engineering, Natural sciences, Physical sciences 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, etc.; also, to seesaw, as a pair of alternators working in parallel.
[…] after which the inertia of the camera causes the motor to hunt with fluctuating speed.1995, Bernard Wilkie, Special Effects in Television, page 174:
Etymology From Middle English hunten, from Old English huntian (“to hunt”), from Proto-West Germanic *huntōn (“to hunt, capture”), possibly from Proto-Indo-European *ḱent- (“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. In some areas read as a collective form of hound by folk etymology.
1
The act of hunting.
Through male bonding, the subculture of the hunt caught up in the mystique of the chase, the hunting party became a military force, and men discovered that they need not stop at defense: they could go out to hunt for other people's wealth.1981, William Irwin Thompson, The Time Falling Bodies Take to Light: Mythology, Sexuality and the Origins of Culture, London: Rider/Hutchinson & Co., page 134:
2
A hunting expedition.
3
An organization devoted to hunting, or the people belonging to it.