hunt

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

• 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.
   • Bible, Genesis xxvii. 5

     Esau went to the field to hunt for venison.

   • Tennyson

     Like a dog, he hunts in dreams.

   • 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).
   • William Shakespeare

     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.
   • Addison

     He hunts a pack of dogs.

   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 where the ducks are
• that dog won't hunt

hunt (plural hunts)

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

• Thun

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.

hunt m

1. dog

• Umberto Patuzzi, ed., (2013) Ünsarne Börtar, Luserna: Comitato unitario delle 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

hunt ?

1. dog

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

From Proto-Germanic *hundaz.

hunt m

1. dog

This noun needs an inflection-table template.

• Middle Dutch: hont
  • Dutch: hond

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

From Proto-Germanic *hundaz.

hunt m

1. dog

• Middle High German: hunt
  • Alemannic German: Hund

    Alsatian: Hund

    Swabian: Hond

    Walser: hun, hund, hunn, hònn

  • Bavarian: hunt

    Cimbrian: hunt

  • Central Franconian: Hond, Honk, Honk

    Hunsrik: Hund

    Kölsch: Hunk, Hungk

  • German: Hund

    Esperanto: hundo

  • Luxembourgish: Hond
  • Vilamovian: hund
  • Yiddish: הונט‎ (hunt)