hunt

From Middle English hunten, from Old English huntian (“to hunt”), from Proto-Germanic *huntōną (“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.

• IPA^(key): /hʌnt/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ʌnt

hunt (third-person singular simple present hunts, present participle hunting, simple past and past participle hunted)

1. (transitive, intransitive) To find or search for an animal in the wild with the intention of killing the animal for its meat or for sport.
   • 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], OCLC 964384981, Genesis 27:5–passageEsau went to the field to hunt for venison.:

   • 1835, Alfred Tennyson, “Locksley Hall”, in Poems. […], volume II, London: Edward Moxon, […], published 1842, OCLC 1008064829, page 100:

     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.

   • 2010, Backyard deer hunting: converting deer to dinner for pennies per pound, →ISBN, page 10:

   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. (transitive, intransitive) To try to find something; search (for).
   • c. 1590–1591, 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 606515358, [Act I, scene i]:

     He after honour hunts, I after love.

   • 1913, Joseph C. Lincoln, chapter 1, in Mr. Pratt's Patients:

     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.

   • 2004, Prill Boyle, Defying Gravity: A Celebration of Late-Blooming Women, →ISBN, page 119:

     My idea of retirement was to hunt seashells, play golf, and do a lot of walking.

   • 2011, Ann Major, Nobody's Child, →ISBN:

     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.

   The little girl was hunting for shells on the beach.

   The police are hunting for evidence.

3. (transitive) To drive; to chase; with down, from, away, etc.

   to hunt down a criminal

   He was hunted from the parish.

4. (transitive) To use or manage (dogs, horses, etc.) in hunting.
   • 1711 July 15 (Gregorian calendar)​, Joseph Addison; Richard Steele [et al.], “WEDNESDAY, 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 191120697:

     He hunts a pack of dogs better than any man in the country.

   Did you hunt that pony last week?

5. (transitive) To use or traverse in pursuit of game.

   He hunts the woods, or the country.

6. (bell-ringing, transitive) To move or shift the order of (a bell) in a regular course of changes.
7. (bell-ringing, intransitive) To shift up and down in order regularly.
8. (engineering, intransitive) 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.
   • 1995, Bernard Wilkie, Special Effects in Television, page 174:

     […] after which the inertia of the camera causes the motor to hunt with fluctuating speed.

hunt (plural hunts)

1. The act of hunting.
   • 1981, William Irwin Thompson, The Time Falling Bodies Take to Light: Mythology, Sexuality and the Origins of Culture, London: Rider/Hutchinson & Co., page 134:

     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.

2. A hunting expedition.
3. An organization devoted to hunting, or the people belonging to it.
4. A pack of hunting dogs.

• Thun

• Hund

hunt ?

1. (Sappada, Sauris, Timau) dog

• Umberto Patuzzi, ed., (2013) Ünsarne Börtar, Luserna: Comitato unitario delle linguistiche storiche germaniche in Italia / Einheitskomitee der historischen deutschen Sprachinseln in Italien.

From Middle High German hunt, from Old High German hunt, from Proto-West Germanic *hund, from Proto-Germanic *hundaz. Cognate with German Hund, English hound.

hunt m (plural hunte, diminutive hüntle, feminine hünten)

1. (Luserna, Sette Comuni) dog
2. (Sette Comuni) firing pin

• “hunt” in Martalar, Umberto Martello; Bellotto, Alfonso (1974) Dizionario della lingua Cimbra dei Sette Communi vicentini, 1st edition, Roana, Italy: Instituto di Cultura Cimbra A. Dal Pozzo
• Patuzzi, Umberto, ed., (2013) Luserna / Lusérn: Le nostre parole / Ünsarne börtar / Unsere Wörter [Our Words], Luserna, Italy: Comitato unitario delle isole linguistiche storiche germaniche in Italia / Einheitskomitee der historischen deutschen Sprachinseln in Italien

Most likely from Middle Low German hunt. Possibly an earlier loan from Proto-Germanic *hundaz.

hunt (genitive hundi, partitive hunti)

1. wolf, grey wolf

• susi
• untsantsakas
• hall hunt

From Middle High German hunt, from Old High German hunt, from Proto-West Germanic *hund, from Proto-Germanic *hundaz (“dog”). Cognate with German Hund, English hound.

hunt m

1. dog

• Patuzzi, Umberto, ed., (2013) Luserna / Lusérn: Le nostre parole / Ünsarne börtar / Unsere Wörter [Our Words], Luserna, Italy: Comitato unitario delle isole linguistiche storiche germaniche in Italia / Einheitskomitee der historischen deutschen Sprachinseln in Italien

From Proto-West Germanic *hund.

hunt m

1. dog

This noun needs an inflection-table template.

• Middle Dutch: hont
  • Dutch: hond

• “hunt (I)”, in Oudnederlands Woordenboek, 2012

From Proto-West Germanic *hund.

hunt m

1. dog

• Middle High German: hunt
  • Alemannic German: Hund

    Alsatian: Hund

    Swabian: Hond

    Walser: hun, hund, hunn, hònn

  • Bavarian:

    Cimbrian: hunt

    Mòcheno: hunt

    Udinese: hunt

  • Central Franconian: Hond, Honk; Hunk, Honk

    Hunsrik: Hund

    Kölsch: Hunk, Hungk

  • German: Hund
    • → Esperanto: hundo
      • Ido: hundo
  • Luxembourgish: Hond
  • Vilamovian: hund
  • Yiddish: הונט‎ (hunt)