hunter
(ˈhʌntə(r))
[f. hunt v. + -er1.]
1. A man who hunts. a. One engaged in the chase of wild animals; a huntsman.
| c 1250 Gen. & Ex. 1481 Esau wilde man huntere, And Iacob tame man tiliere. c 1386 Chaucer Knt.'s T. 780 The hunters in the regne of Trace. c 1420 Anturs of Arth. v, The hunteres thay haulen, by hurstes and by hoes. 1486 Bk. St. Albans E iij b, The hunter shall rewarde hem then with the hede. 1590 Spenser F.Q. ii. iii. 21 A goodly Ladie clad in hunters weed. 1692 Luttrell Brief Rel. (1857) II. 639 Last Satturday 9 highwaymen mett and robb'd 7 hunters, near Ingerstone, in Essex. 1735 Somerville Chase i. 37 When Nimrod bold, That mighty Hunter, first made War on Beasts. 1865 Lubbock Preh. Times xvi. (1869) 581 In a population which lives on the produce of the chase, each hunter requires on an average 50,000 acres. |
b. fig. and
gen. One who hunts or searches eagerly for something; a seeker. (Most
freq. in comb., as
fortune-hunter,
place-hunter.)
| c 1374 Chaucer Boeth. i. pr. iii. 12 (Add. MS.) We scorne swiche rauiners and honters [Camb. MS. henters] of foulest[e] þinges. 1526 Pilgr. Perf. (W. de W. 1531) 74 b, The hunter of mannes soule. 1542–5 Brinklow Lament. 6 b, Whore hounters and robbers of Goddes glorie. 1796 Burke Let. Noble Ld. Wks. VIII. 52 They are the duke of Bedford's natural hunters; and he is their natural game. 1811 Miss Mitford in L'Estrange Life (1870) I. v. 157 Are you a good motto hunter? |
c. Mil. (
tr. Ger. jäger,
Fr. chasseur.)
| 1753 Hanway Trav. (1762) I. vii. xciii. 428 Besides the hussars, the king has a small body of men whom they call hunters, who are reputed the most faithful couriers in his army. 1761 Brit. Mag. II. 443 Lieutenant-colonel de Stockhausen had..posted himself in the Solling with his hunters and cannon. |
2. a. A horse used, or adapted for use, in hunting.
| 1687 Lond. Gaz. No. 2296/4 A milk white Mare above 14 hands..a very good Hunter. 1786 Mrs. Piozzi Anecd. Johnson in Boswell (1831) I. 512 He certainly rode on Mr. Thrale's old hunter. 1882 C. Pebody Eng. Journalism xvi. 120 The dash and decision with which, upon a thorough⁓bred hunter, he rode to hounds. |
b. A dog used in or adapted for hunting.
| 1605 Shakes. Macb. iii. i. 97 The valued file Distinguishes the swift, the slow, the subtle, The House-keeper, the Hunter. 1685 Lond. Gaz. No. 2037/4 To be sold 14 Couple of Harriers, very good Hunters, and have good Mouths. 1898 Daily News 5 Oct. 6/6 A very close hunter, and a fine hound to boot. |
3. An animal that hunts or chases its prey;
spec. a. = hunting-spider (see
hunting ppl. a. b);
b. The Jamaican cuckoo,
Hyetornis pluvialis.
| 1658 Rowland Moufet's Theat. Ins. 1058 Spiders..others live in the open air, and from their greediness are called hunters or wolves. 1667 Milton P.L. xi. 188 The Beast that reigns in Woods, First Hunter then. 1847 Gosse & Hill Birds Jamaica 277 Hunter. Old Man.—Rainbird... The appellation of Rainbird is indiscriminately applied to both this and the preceding [sc. Saurothera vetula], as is, in a lesser degree, that of Old Man. I use a term by which I have heard it distinguished,..perhaps derived from the perseverance with which it hunts..for its prey. 1885 A. Brassey The Trades 133 The most formidable of these insects appears to be the ‘hunter ant’. 1960 J. Bond Birds W. Indies 116 Chestnut-bellied cuckoo. Hyetornis pluvialis. Local names: Old Man Bird; Hunter; Rain Bird. |
4. = hunting-watch: see
hunting vbl. n. 3 b.
| 1851 Illustr. Catal. Gt. Exhib. 1268 A hunter, engraved, enamel dial, 1½ inches diameter. 1884 F. J. Britten Watch & Clockm. 122 Hunter..[is] a watch case that has a metal cover over the dial. |
5. attrib. and
Comb. a. in sense 1, as
hunter-boy,
hunter-craft,
hunter-crew,
hunter-goddess,
hunter-spear,
hunter-train,
hunter-troop,
hunter-warrior;
hunter-like,
hunter-seeming adjs.;
b. in sense 2, as
hunter action,
hunter-breeder,
hunter-breeding,
hunter-fancier,
hunter-horse,
hunter-steed;
c. in sense 3, as
hunter ant;
hunter-spider = sense 3 a.
| 1823 in Joanna Baillie Collect. Poems 15 A *hunter-boy blew horn beneath it. |
| 1856 H. H. Dixon Post & Paddock i. 2 An old *hunter-breeder's confession. |
| Ibid. 7 The Shropshire men..are more careful, both as to pedigree and style, in their *hunter-breeding. |
| 1851 Mayne Reid Scalp Hunt. v, Different tricks known in *hunter-craft. |
| 1838 J. Pardoe River & Desert II. 53 Dedicated to the *Hunter-Goddess. |
| 1735 Somerville Chase iv. 240 The *Hunter-Horse, Once kind Associate of his sylvan Toils. |
| 1555–8 T. Phaer æneid i. B j, *Hunterlyke her bow she bare, her lockes went with the wynd. |
| 1483 Cath. Angl. 192/2 An *Hunter spere, venabulum. |
| 1867 Amer. Naturalist I. 409 This very large *hunter-spider [sc. the tarantula] makes its appearance in Texas some years as early as the twenty-fifth of May. |
| 1863 Lyell Antiq. Man 23 When the habits of the *hunter state predominated over those of the pastoral, venison was more eaten than the flesh of..sheep. |
| 1697 Dryden æneid xi. 1003 Young Ornitus bestrode a *hunter steed. |
| 1735 Somerville Chase ii. 357 The busy *Hunter-Train mark out the Ground. |
d. Combinations with
hunter's, in specialized senses: as
hunter's beef,
pudding (see
quots.);
hunter's green (see
quot. 1957);
† hunter's mass (
cf. Ger. jägermesse), ‘a short mass said in great haste for hunters who were eager to start for the chase’ (Nares);
hunter's moon, a name for the full moon next after the
harvest moon (
q.v.).
| 1879 Mrs. A. G. F. E. James Ind. Househ. Managem. 55 A hump of beef is..best spiced and cured, as *hunter's beef is made at home. |
| 1872 Young Englishwoman Nov. 599/1 Sombre greens,..chasseur, or *hunter's-green, myrtle, cypress. 1957 M. B. Picken Fashion Dict. 181/2 Hunter's green, dark, slightly yellowish green. |
| 1595 Copley Wits, Fits, & Fancies 60 A Gentleman pray'd him to say a *Hunters Masse (meaning a briefe Masse). |
| 1710 Brit. Apollo III. No. 70. 2/1 The Country People call this the *Hunters-Moon. 1854 Tomlinson Arago's Astron. 171 There can, therefore, be but two full moons in the year which rise during a week almost at the same time as the sun sets; the former, occurring in September, is called the Harvest-Moon; and the latter, in the month of October, being in a similar predicament, is termed the Hunter's Moon. |
| 1815 Simond Tour Gt. Brit. I. 45 This plum-pudding..This precious faculty of not losing anything from waiting, has made it be named emphatically *Hunter's Pudding, Pudding de Chasseur. |
e. hunter-killer a., designating a naval vessel or group of vessels equipped to locate and destroy enemy vessels,
esp. submarines. Also as
n.| 1948 U.S. Naval Inst. Proc. LXXIV. 505/2 The other two will be classified as ‘hunter-killers’—destroyers with the prime purpose of tracking down submarines, instead of operating on convoy duty. 1950 Jane's Fighting Ships 1950–51 7 A new anti-submarine type of light cruiser, known as a hunter-killer ship, will be completed in 1951. 1957 Times Lit. Suppl. 20 Dec. 771/3 The escort carrier Guadalcanal and her ‘hunter-killer’ group of four escort destroyers. 1962 Daily Tel. 10 Dec. 18/4 Britain's first nuclear hunter-killer submarine, is expected to leave the..yard of her builders,..on Wednesday or Thursday for sea-trials. 1972 Sci. Amer. July 16/3 A hunter-killer submarine is large enough to carry an array of hydrophones to produce a narrow listening beam for long-range detection. |