hunt, v. — Green’s Dictionary of Slang

hunt v.

1. (Aus.) to drive away, to chase off.

1901		Bulletin (Sydney) 7 Dec. 32/1: But, all the same, I’m not the sort of chap to hunt a man, / I’ll give him lodgings while he likes to stay; / And on Sundays let him snare some blanky ’possums – if he can; / I never turned a blanky man away!
1903		Bulletin (Sydney) 9 July 16/4: ‘Hang the brute!’ said the boss, angrily – ‘hunt him out of the yard.’.
1997		Share Slanguage.

2. (US campus/gay) to search for a partner for romance or sex.

1930		N. Lindsay Redheap (1965) 80: ‘You hunt girls, of course,’ he added.
1972		B. Rodgers Queens’ Vernacular 56: to search for sex [...] hunt.
1990		Eble Campus Sl. Nov.

SE in slang uses

In compounds

hunt-about (n.)

1. a prostitute.

1890–1904

Farmer & Henley Sl. and Its Analogues.

2. an interfering, meddlesome gossip.

1890–1904

Farmer & Henley Sl. and Its Analogues.

hunt-buggy (n.) [buggy n.² (1)]

(US gang) a police car.

1965

S. Yurick Warriors (1966) 71: That patrol car passed, but it seemed as if it was a block nearer. Or was it a different hunt-buggy—going a little faster than he thought it should?

In phrases

hunt-and-peck (adj.)

of a poor typist, one who has to search for the relevant key and then hits it half-heartedly, also as v.

1915		Columbia Missourian 7 July 4/1: [headline] students just hunt and peck / That’s the System Beginners in Journalism Use in Typewriting Copy.
1974		R. Dennis Working for the Man in Complete Hardman 944: I could hear a hunt-and-peck typist doing his two words a minute off in the background.

hunt a placebo (v.)

see under placebo n.

hunt a tavern fox (v.) [pun on SE fox/foxed adj.]

to get drunk.

1635

J. Taylor ‘Life of Thomas Parr’ in Works (1870) 20: Nor did hee ever hunt a Taverne Fox, / Nere knew a Coach, Tobacco, o the Pox.

hunt grass (v.) [var. on go to grass v. (1)] (US)

1. to be knocked down.

1872

‘Mark Twain’ Innocents at Home 21: [...] When you get in with your left I hunt grass every time.

2. to be extremely confused.

1984

Partridge DSUE (8th edn) 583/2: –1869; † by 1910.

hunt one’s hole (v.)

see under hole n.¹

hunt the dummy (v.)

see under dummy n.²

hunt the elephant (v.)

see see the elephant under elephant n.

hunt the hay (v.)

see under hay n.

hunt the squirrel (v.) [the coaches veer from side to side as does a frightened squirrel]

of two coachmen, to attempt to upset each other’s vehicles as they race along a public road; typically one being a hackney coach, the other a stage.

1781		G. Parker View of Society II 127: Squirrel-Hunting is a practice among Stage and Hackney-Coachman, who, when they are meet an inferior or aukward rider or driver endeavour to drive over or over-turn him. This they call Hunting the Squirrel.
1785, 1788, 1796		Grose Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue n.p.: Hunting the squirrel, an amusement practised by post boys, and stage coachmen, which consists in following a one horse chaise, and driving it before them, passing close to it so as to brush the wheel, and by other means terrifying any woman, or person that may be in it.
1801		Sporting Mag. May XVIII 97/2: [as cit. 1785].
1811		Lex. Balatronicum.
1859, 1860		Hotten Dict. of Modern Sl. etc.
1864, 1867, 1870		Hotten Sl. Dict.
1890–1904		Farmer & Henley Sl. and Its Analogues.

hunt up a cow (v.)

see chase (up) a cow under cow n.¹