hunter

plural hunters

1. One who hunts game for sport or for food; a huntsman or huntswoman.
2. A dog used in hunting; a hunting dog.

   thy intercepter, full of despite, bloody as the hunter, attends thee at the orchard end

   c. 1601–1602 (date written), William Shakespeare, “Twelfe Night, or What You Will”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act III, scene iv]

3. A horse used in hunting, especially a thoroughbred, bred and trained for hunting.

   a sound, swift, well-bred hunter and roadster

   1857–1859, W[illiam] M[akepeace] Thackeray, The Virginians. A Tale of the Last Century, volume (please specify |volume=I or II), London: Bradbury & Evans, […], published 1858–1859, →OCLC

   3 more examples

   ‘His favourite Hunter who was turned out in the park on his going abroad, somehow or other fell ill […] .’

   c. 1792–3, Jane Austen, ‘Catharine, or The Bower’, Juvenilia

   No one, however, thought of the haughty and secluded young gentleman who […] when he rode on his black hunter into Dublin, avoided the village, and took the high-road by Inchicore.

   1863, J[oseph] Sheridan Le Fanu, “About the Rightful Mrs. Nutter of the Mills, and How Mr. Mervyn Received the News”, in The House by the Church-yard. […], volume III, London: Tinsley, Brothers, […], →OCLC, page 258

   Henry, laughing, spurs away his hunter under the dripping trees.

   2009, Hilary Mantel, Wolf Hall, Fourth Estate, published 2010, page 480

4. One who hunts or seeks after anything.

   a fortune hunter

   3 more examples

   The hunter becomes the hunted.

   You know right well, how meek soe'er he seem, / No keener hunter after glory breathes.

   1859, Alfred Tennyson, “Elaine”, in Idylls of the King, London: Edward Moxon & Co., […], →OCLC, page 155

   Offmunson he's called, and a bright young pedigree-hunter has traced his descent from Offa, King of Mercia.

   1914, Ernest Bramah [pseudonym; Ernest Brammah Smith], Max Carrados

5. human sciencesA person who bottles up their aggression and eventually releases it explosively.

   Although their behavior does not have the same impact as hunters, howlers nevertheless distract the public figure and compel security and law enforcement […]

   2008, J. Reid Meloy, Lorraine Sheridan, Jens Hoffmann, Stalking, Threatening, and Attacking Public Figures, page 121

   1 more example

   Hunters stalk their targets, make detailed plans, acquire and practice with weapons, and try to hurt or kill people. Howlers make bomb threats to schools, malls, churches, businesses, and government offices.

   2015, Steve Albrecht, Library Security: Better Communication, Safer Facilities

6. A kind of spider, the huntsman or hunting spider.
7. A pocket watch with a spring-hinged circular metal cover that closes over the dial and crystal, protecting them from dust and scratches.

plural Hunters

1. countableuncountableAn English and Scottish surname originating as an occupation for a hunter.
2. countableuncountableA male given name transferred from the surname.
3. A placename
   1. countableuncountableA river in New South Wales, Australia; flowing 300 km from the Mount Royal Range within Barrington Tops National Park into the Tasman Sea at Newcastle; named for John Hunter, 2nd Governor of New South Wales.
   2. countableuncountableA river in Western Australia, Australia; flowing 16 km from Donkins Hill near Mitchell River National Park into the Timor Sea; named by Australian explorer Philip Parker King for James Hunter, the surgeon of King's HMS Mermaid.
   3. countableuncountableAn electoral division in New South Wales, Australia.
   4. countableuncountableA locality in the City of Greater Bendigo, central Victoria, Australia
   5. countableuncountableA river in northwest Otago, New Zealand; flowing into Lake Hāwea.
   6. countableuncountableA river in Prince Edward Island, Canada; flowing from near Hartville into the Gulf of Saint Lawrence near North Rustico.
   7. countableuncountableA town in Woodruff County, Arkansas.
   8. countableuncountableAn unincorporated community in Boone County, Illinois.
   9. countableuncountableA township in Edgar County, Illinois.
   10. countableuncountableA minor city in Mitchell County, Kansas; named for early settler Al Hunter.
   11. countableuncountableA township in Jackson County, Minnesota.
   12. countableuncountableA census-designated place in Carter County, Missouri; named for early landowner John Hunter.
   13. countableuncountableA ghost town in Elko County, Nevada.
   14. countableuncountableA town and village therein, in Greene County, New York.
   15. countableuncountableA minor city in Cass County, North Dakota; named for local landowner John Hunter.
   16. countableuncountableAn unincorporated community in Belmont County, Ohio; named for Ohio congressman W. F. Hunter.
   17. countableuncountableA census-designated place in Franklin Township, Warren County, Ohio.
   18. countableuncountableA town in Garfield County, Oklahoma.
   19. countableuncountableA census-designated place in Carter County, Tennessee.
   20. countableuncountableA town in Sawyer County, Wisconsin.
4. countableuncountableastronomyThe constellation Orion.

   She betook herself to the bedroom in the western wing, there to lie and watch pale Diana chase the Hunter down the sky.

   1961, Xavier Herbert, Soldiers' Women, Netley, SA: Fontana Books, published 1978, page 138

   1 more example

   But he must ever watch the northern Bear, Who from her frozen height with jealous eye Confronts the Dog and the Hunter in the south, And is alone not dipt in Ocean's stream.

   1869, Matthew Arnold, Early Poems, Narrative Poems and Sonnets, London: Macmillan and Co., published 1885, page 150