Hunt, v. i.
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. To seek; to pursue; to search; -- with for or after. He after honor hunts, I after love. Shak. To hunt counter, to trace the scent backward in hunting, as a hound to go back on one's steps. [Obs.] Shak.
2 other Webster entries under this spelling
Hunt, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Hunted; p. pr. & vb. n. Hunting.]
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. 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. To drive; to chase; -- with down, from, away, etc.; as, to hunt down a criminal; he was hunted from the parish.
4. To use or manage in the chase, as hounds. He hunts a pack of dogs. Addison.
5. To use or traverse in pursuit of game; as, he hunts the woods, or the country.
Hunt, n.
1. The act or practice of chasing wild animals; chase; pursuit; search. The hunt is up; the morn is bright and gray. Shak.
2. The game secured in the hunt. [Obs.] Shak.
3. A pack of hounds. [Obs.]
4. An association of huntsmen.
5. A district of country hunted over. Every landowner within the hunt. London Field.
Shades of meaning
A hunt may be either the act of pursuing or the act of seeking, or a combination of the two. A chase or pursuit is after that which is fleeing or departing; a search is for that which is hidden; a hunt may be for that which is either hidden or fleeing; a search is a minute and careful seeking, and is especially applied to a locality; we make a search of or through a house, for an object, in which connection it would be colloquial to say a hunt. Hunt never quite loses its association with field-sports, where it includes both search and chase; the search till the game is hunted out, and the chase till it is hunted down. Figuratively, we speak of literary pursuits, or of the pursuit of knowledge; a search for reasons; the chase of fame or honor; hunt, in figurative use, inclines to the unfavorable sense of inquisition, but with more of dash and aggressiveness; as, a hunt for heresy.