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🔍 To find after searching 🐗 To catch animals
to hunt down

to hunt down

6 4.0
Chase and take wild animals for food or sport
  • phrasal verb
  • /hʌnt daʊn/
translation icon : cazar
  • We cannot negotiate with individual terrorists; they must be hunted down and captured or killed.
  • hunt down and kill

They go out in the daytime and they hunt down animals in the scorching sun.

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Examples

  • In this installment, 007 hunts down the drug dealer.

    Blog text (17)

  • The hunters set out early in the morning to hunt down deer in the forest.

  • The Captain knew that Joshua was a good shooter, so he took him along with one other man to hunt down the thieves.

    Fiction book (1999)

  • They go out in the daytime and they hunt down animals in the scorching sun.

    Rich Roll

  • In November 1703, two English warships that had been dispatched to hunt down the remaining pirates cruised off the east coast of Madagascar.

    Academic text (2005)

  • During the trip, they planned to hunt down wild boars for their annual feast.

  • Many people travel to remote areas to hunt down rare game species for sport.

Synonyms

to hunt
vsto hunt down
367 1.4

To chase and kill wild animals for food or sport

has identical meaning and is the standard general form
to prey
vsto hunt down
16 3.7

To hunt and eat other animals for food

focuses more on the pursuit and capture or killing than feeding
to track down
vsto hunt down
9 4.6

To follow wild animals until you catch or kill them

usually covers chasing that may not involve steady following
to stalk its prey
vsto hunt down
6 6.6

To move quietly and carefully toward an animal to catch it by surprise

involves broader chasing rather than a quiet surprise approach
to still-hunt
vsto hunt down
  • Jargon
1 9.8

To move quietly and try to catch an animal by surprise

is broader, including active pursuit as well as ambush methods
to search for prey
vsto hunt down
5.0

To look for animals to hunt and eat

includes finding plus the following or killing, not only looking

Antonyms

to protect
∞ 1.0

To keep someone or something safe from harm

How Violent

to kill
  • NSFW
∞ 1.0
to hunt down
6 4.0
capture
112 3.2
to chase
855 1.0
to pursue
∞ 3.5
to track
∞ 2.3

Surface Forms

hunt down infinitive
hunted down past
hunted down past participle
hunting down present participle
hunts down third person singular

Morphology

hunt + down

The meaning 'to search for and successfully find' is largely derivable from 'hunt' (to search) combined with 'down' adding a sense of bringing/capturing or completion. However, 'down' as a particle conveying successful capture is somewhat metaphorical and phrasal-verb patterns vary, so a B1 learner who only knows the individual words may not fully predict the exact nuance without exposure.

Etymology

Hunt down comes from the simple image of hunters chasing an animal until they catch it or force it to the ground; think of hunters and dogs driving prey until it can no longer run. That's why the phrase means 'to capture or kill'.