hunt
/hʌnt/
Word Rarity
Uncommon
Frequency: 4.49 in modern English
7
Scrabble Score
4
Letters
1
Syllables
4
Unique Chars
Meaning
verb
To find or search for an animal in the wild with the intention of killing the animal for its meat or for sport.
verb
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.
Intransitive verb
Example Sentences
- "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."
- "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."
- "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."
- "The little girl was hunting for shells on the beach."
- "The police are hunting for evidence."
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.
Origin
Word Breakdown
- Root: hunten, huntian, *huntōn, *ḱent-
Usage
Subject
Wiktionary places this term in People.