Hunt Meaning
/hʌnt/Definition, CEFR level B1, pronunciation, examples, and quiz.
Listen pronunciation
Definition
verbTo find or search for an animal in the wild with the intention of killing the animal for its meat or for sport.
verbTo try to find something; search (for).
Sentence Examples
Mr Hunt is principal of our school.
The police have started a nationwide hunt for the criminal.
The hunt is on for a suitable candidate.
CEFR Practice Quiz
The lion will ____ for prey in the savanna using its sharp teeth.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
The lions carefully ____ together in a large group to catch their prey on the African plains.
Word Origin & History
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.
Literary Quotations & Historical Citations
"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:
"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:
Explore More B1 Vocabulary Words
CEFR Practice Quiz
The lion will ____ for prey in the savanna using its sharp teeth.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
The lions carefully ____ together in a large group to catch their prey on the African plains.