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Entry 15 senses · 3 variants Webster, 1913

Hunt

/(hŭnt)/ · IPA /hʌnt/
01 v. t. 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 …
imp. & p. p. Hunted; p. pr. & vb. n. Hunting
  1. 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.” — Tennyson.
  2. 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. 3.
    To drive; to chase; -- with down, from, away, etc.; as, to hunt down a criminal; he was hunted from the parish.
  4. 4.
    To use or manage in the chase, as hounds.
    “He hunts a pack of dogs.” — Addison.
  5. 5.
    To use or traverse in pursuit of game; as, he hunts the woods, or the country.
  6. 6.
    To move or shift the order of (a bell) in a regular course of changes.(Change Ringing)
02 v. i. To follow the chase; to go out in pursuit of game; to course with hounds.
  1. 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. 2.
    To seek; to pursue; to search; -- with for or after.
    “He after honor hunts, I after love.” — Shak.
  3. 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. 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.
03 n. The act or practice of chasing wild animals; chase; pursuit; search.
  1. 1.
    The act or practice of chasing wild animals; chase; pursuit; search.
    “The hunt is up; the morn is bright and gray.” — Shak.
  2. 2.
    The game secured in the hunt.[Obs.]
  3. 3.
    A pack of hounds.[Obs.]
  4. 4.
    An association of huntsmen.
  5. 5.
    A district of country hunted over.
    “Every landowner within the hunt.” — London Field.