brown

en-noun

brown (countable and uncountable, plural browns)

Bislama: braon

Tok Pisin: braun

→ Welsh: brown

→ Tongan: palauni

From Middle English broun, from Old English brūn (“brown; dark; dusky”), from Proto-West Germanic *brūn, from Proto-Germanic *brūnaz, from Proto-Indo-European *bʰerH-. Doublet of bruin.
Cognates
* Dutch bruin
* German braun
* Ancient Greek φρύνη (phrúnē), φρῦνος (phrûnos, “toad”)
* Latin brunneus (“brown”)
* Lithuanian bė́ras (“brown”)
* Sanskrit बभ्रु (babhrú, “reddish-brown”)
* West Frisian brún

cog

The temptation to have a shot into the brown was great. There was not a head there which was not a big one and the one by himself was not too easy a shot since it is always difficult to shoot when lying in soft snow.

1928, R. Pigot, Twenty-five Years Big Game Hunting, page 166:

My anger mounted at this, I opened the courtyard door and raised my musket to fire into the brown; I had loaded it with small shot, and if it had gone off that would have been the death of us and the ruin of all of us in the house.

1979, Kevin Andrews, Athens Alive, page 223:

(hunting, as "the brown") A mass of birds or animals that may be indiscriminately fired at.


point

en-noun

point (countable and uncountable, plural points)

→ Cantonese: point

→ Indonesian: poin

→ Japanese: ポイント (pointo)

→ Korean: 포인트 (pointeu)

→ Malay: poin

From Middle English poynt, from Old French point m (“dot; minute amount”), from Latin pūnctum (“a hole punched in; a point, puncture”), substantive use of pūnctus m, perfect passive participle of pungō (“I prick, punch”) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *pewǵ- (“prick, punch”)); alternatively, from Old French pointe f (“sharp tip”), from Latin pūncta f (past participle). Mostly displaced native Middle English ord (“point”), from Old English ord (“point”). Doublet of pointe, ponto, puncto, punctum, punt, and punto.

връх

position at the front or vanguard of an advancing force

decimal point

not used when reading decimal fractions aloud

In various sports, a position of a certain player, or, by extension, the player occupying that position.

(hunting) A spot to which a straight run is made; hence, a straight run from point to point; a cross-country run.


point

en-verb

point (third-person singular simple present points, present participle pointing, simple past and past participle pointed)

points (present singular third-person)
pointing (participle present)
pointed (participle past)
pointed (past)
p'int (alternative)

From Middle English pointen, poynten, from Old French pointier, pointer, poynter, from point from Latin pūnctum.

Novv the vvarm Scent aſſures the Covey near, / He [the dog] treads vvith Caution, and he points vvith Fear; […]

1713, [John] Gay, Rural Sports. A Poem. […], 2nd edition, London: […] J[acob] Tonson, […], →OCLC, page 16:

(intransitive, hunting) To indicate the presence of game by a fixed and steady look, as certain hunting dogs do.


cast

cast (third-person singular simple present casts, present participle casting, simple past and past participle cast or (nonstandard) casted)

casts (present singular third-person)
casting (participle present)
cast (participle past)
cast (past)
casted (nonstandard participle past)
casted (nonstandard past)
cast (infinitive)
cast (first-person present singular)
cast (first-person past singular)
cast (present second-person singular)
castest (archaic present second-person singular)
cast (past second-person singular)
castest (archaic past second-person singular)
casts (present singular third-person)
casteth (archaic present singular third-person)
cast (past singular third-person)
cast (plural present)
cast (past plural)
cast (present subjunctive)
cast (past subjunctive)
cast (imperative present)
casting (participle present)
cast (participle past)

New York, New Orleans, Philadelphia, Baltimore

Etymology tree
Proto-Germanic *kas-
Proto-Germanic *kastōną
Old Norse kastabor.
Middle English casten
English cast
From Middle English casten, from Old Norse kasta (“to throw, cast, overturn”), from Proto-Germanic *kastōną (“to throw, cast”), of unknown origin.
Cognate with Scots cast (“to cast, throw”), Danish kaste (“to throw”), Swedish kasta (“to throw, cast, fling, toss, discard”), Icelandic kasta (“to pitch, toss”). In the sense of "flinging", displaced native warp.
The senses relating to broadcasting are based on that same term; compare -cast.

cog

let he who is without sin cast the first stone

let him that is without sin cast the first stone

let him who is without sin cast the first stone

He clambered on to an apron of rock that held its area out to the sun and began to cast across it. The direction of the wind changed and the scent touched him again.

1955, William Golding, The Inheritors, Faber and Faber, published 2005, page 50:

(hunting) Of dogs, hunters: to spread out and search for a scent.

hakea vainu

hunting: to spread out and search for a scent


prick

en-verb

prick (third-person singular simple present pricks, present participle pricking, simple past and past participle pricked)

pricks (present singular third-person)
pricking (participle present)
pricked (participle past)
pricked (past)

From Middle English prikken, from Old English prician, priccan (“to prick”), from Proto-Germanic *prikōną, *prikjaną (“to pierce, prick”), of uncertain origin; perhaps from Proto-Indo-European *breyǵ- (“to scrape, scratch, rub, prickle, chap”). Cognate with dialectal English pritch, Dutch prikken (“to prick, sting”), Middle High German pfrecken (“to prick”), Swedish pricka (“to dot, prick”), and possibly to Lithuanian įbrėžti (“to scrape, scratch, carve, inscribe, strike”).

cog

They had shot at old Tom, the hare, too, but he is still alive; at least I pricked him yesterday morn across the path into the turnip field.

1871, Robert Smith Surtees, Jorrocks's jaunts and jollities, page 48:

(transitive) To pierce or puncture slightly.

(transitive, hunting) To shoot without killing.

To pierce or puncture slightly.
To shoot without killing.


beat

→ Pennsylvania German: biede

From Middle English beten, from Old English bēatan (“to beat, pound, strike, lash, dash, thrust, hurt, injure”), from Proto-West Germanic *bautan, from Proto-Germanic *bautaną (“to push, strike”), from Proto-Indo-European *bʰewd- (“to hit, strike”).
Compare Old Irish fo·botha (“he threatened”), Latin confutō (“to strike down”), fūstis (“stick, club”), Albanian bahe (“sling”), Lithuanian baudžiù, Old Armenian բութ (butʻ)).

der

march to the beat of a different drummer

Bears coming out of holes in the rocks at the last moment, when the beat is close to them.

1911, Hedley Peek, Frederick George Aflalo, Encyclopaedia of Sport:

(hunting) The act of scouring, or ranging over, a tract of land to rouse or drive out game; also, those so engaged, collectively.

ajo

hunting: act of scouring, or ranging over


bed

en-verb

bed (third-person singular simple present beds, present participle bedding, simple past and past participle bedded)

beds (present singular third-person)
bedding (participle present)
bedded (participle past)
bedded (past)

African-American Vernacular, some speakers

Inherited from Middle English bed, bedde, from Old English bedd, from Proto-West Germanic *badi, from Proto-Germanic *badją (“resting-place, plot of ground”).
Cognates
Cognate with North Frisian baad, beed, Saterland Frisian Bääd, West Frisian bêd, Low German Bedd, Dutch bed, German Bett, Swedish bädd, Icelandic beður, all meaning “bed”.
further possible etymology and cognates
The Proto-Germanic term may in turn be from Proto-Indo-European *bʰedʰ- (“to dig”) with various theories explaining the development in meaning. If it is, the term is also cognate with Ancient Greek βοθυρος (bothuros, “pit”), Latin fossa (“ditch”), Latvian bedre (“hole”), Welsh bedd (“grave”), Breton bez (“grave”); and probably also Russian бодать (bodatʹ, “to butt, gore”).

cog

Senses relating to a bed as a place for resting or sleeping.

(intransitive, hunting) Of large game animals: to be at rest.


draw

en-verb

draw (third-person singular simple present draws, present participle drawing, simple past drew, past participle drawn or (colloquial and nonstandard) drew)

draws (present singular third-person)
drawing (participle present)
drew (past)
drawn (participle past)
drew (colloquial nonstandard participle past)
draw (infinitive)
draw (first-person present singular)
drew (first-person past singular)
draw (present second-person singular)
drawest (archaic present second-person singular)
drew (past second-person singular)
drewest (archaic past second-person singular)
draws (present singular third-person)
draweth (archaic present singular third-person)
drew (past singular third-person)
draw (plural present)
drew (past plural)
draw (present subjunctive)
drew (past subjunctive)
draw (imperative present)
drawing (participle present)
drawn (participle past)

The verb is derived from Middle English drauen, drawen, draȝen, dragen (“to drag, pull; to draw (out); to attract; to entice, lure; to lead; to make a drawing; to move, travel; etc.”), from Old English dragan (“to drag, draw”), from Proto-West Germanic *dragan (“to carry; to haul”), from Proto-Germanic *draganą (“to carry; to pull, draw”); further etymology uncertain, often said to be from Proto-Indo-European *dʰregʰ- (“to pull, draw”), but possibly from a non-Indo-European substrate root which is also the source of Latin trahō (“to pull, draw; etc.”). Doublet of drag and draught.
The noun is derived from Middle English drau, draue (“action of shooting with a bow”), from drauen, drawen (verb).
cognates
* Albanian dredh (“to turn, spin”)
* Danish drage
* Dutch dragen
* German tragen (“to carry”)
* Old Armenian դառնամ (daṙnam, “to turn”)
* Sanskrit ध्रजस् (dhrájas, “gliding course or motion”)
* West Frisian drage

vyluhovávat

of drinks: to leave temporarily so as to allow the flavour to increase

изтеглям

cardgames: to take the top card of a deck into hand

every miller draws water to his own mill

one hair of a woman can draw more than a hundred pair of oxen

Senses relating to extracting or selecting.

(transitive, hunting) To search (a covert, a wood, etc.) for game or a quarry.

On one of my expeditions, after a stormy night, at the end of March, the hounds drew all day without finding a fox.

1928, Siegfried Sassoon, Memoirs of a Fox-Hunting Man, Penguin, published 2013, page 87:

Senses relating to moving or travelling.

(hunting, now rare) To search for game; to track a quarry.


train

→ Irish: traein

→ Maltese: trejn

→ Scottish Gaelic: trèan

→ Welsh: trên

[t̠ɹ̠̊˔e̞ɪ̯n]

From Middle English trayne (“train”), from Old French train (“a delay, a drawing out”), from traïner (“to pull out, to draw”), from Vulgar Latin *traginō, from *tragō, from Latin trahō (“to pull, to draw”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *tregʰ- (“to pull, draw, drag”). The verb was derived from the noun in Middle English.
For the meaning to teach compare typologically Russian ната́скивать (natáskivatʹ) (akin to тащи́ть (taščítʹ)).

m+

ната́скивать

it ain't the whistle that pulls the train

it is not the whistle that pulls the train

it isn't the whistle that pulls the train

it's not the whistle that pulls the train

(obsolete, hunting) Something dragged or laid along the ground to form a trail of scent or food along which to lure an animal.


find

en-verb

find (third-person singular simple present finds, present participle finding, simple past found or (dialectal) fand, past participle found or (archaic) founden)

finds (present singular third-person)
finding (participle present)
found (past)
fand (dialectal past)
found (participle past)
founden (archaic participle past)
find (infinitive)
find (first-person present singular)
found (first-person past singular)
fand (dialectal first-person past singular)
find (present second-person singular)
findest (archaic present second-person singular)
found (past second-person singular)
fand (dialectal past second-person singular)
foundest (archaic past second-person singular)
finds (present singular third-person)
findeth (archaic present singular third-person)
found (past singular third-person)
fand (dialectal past singular third-person)
find (plural present)
found (past plural)
fand (dialectal past plural)
find (present subjunctive)
found (past subjunctive)
fand (dialectal past subjunctive)
find (imperative present)
finding (participle present)
found (participle past)
founden (archaic participle past)

From Middle English finden, from Old English findan, from Proto-West Germanic *finþan, from Proto-Germanic *finþaną, a secondary verb from Proto-Indo-European *pent- (“to go, pass; path bridge”).
See also West Frisian fine, Low German finden, Dutch vinden, German finden, Danish finde, Norwegian Bokmål finne, Norwegian Nynorsk and Swedish finna; also English path, Old Irish étain (“I find”), áitt (“place”), Latin pōns (“bridge”), Ancient Greek πόντος (póntos, “sea”), Old Armenian հուն (hun, “ford”), Avestan 𐬞𐬀𐬧𐬙𐬃 (paṇtā̊), Sanskrit पथ (pathá, “path”), Proto-Slavic *pǫtь.
For the meaning development compare Proto-Slavic *najьti > Russian найти́ (najtí), akin to Proto-Slavic *jьti > идти́ (idtí); Russian находи́ть (naxodítʹ), нахо́дка (naxódka), akin to ход (xod), ходи́ть (xodítʹ).

inh

even a blind pig can find an acorn once in a while

even a blind squirrel can find a nut once in a while

find one's ass with both hands and a flashlight

it is easy to find a stick to beat a dog

look as if one had lost a shilling and found sixpence

look as if one has lost a shilling and found sixpence

scratch a liberal and you'll find a fascist

that's for me to know and you to find out

They found at once, and there was a short sharp run, during which Linda and Tony, both in a somewhat showing-off mood, rode side by side over the stone walls.

1945, Nancy Mitford, The Pursuit of Love, Penguin, published 2010, page 57:

(intransitive, hunting) To discover game.


grind

en-verb

grind (third-person singular simple present grinds, present participle grinding, simple past and past participle ground or grinded)

grinds (present singular third-person)
grinding (participle present)
ground (participle past)
ground (past)
grinded (participle past)
grinded (past)
grind (infinitive)
grind (first-person present singular)
ground (first-person past singular)
grind (present second-person singular)
grindest (archaic present second-person singular)
ground (past second-person singular)
groundst (archaic past second-person singular)
groundest (archaic past second-person singular)
grinds (present singular third-person)
grindeth (archaic present singular third-person)
ground (past singular third-person)
grind (plural present)
ground (past plural)
grind (present subjunctive)
ground (past subjunctive)
grind (imperative present)
grinding (participle present)
ground (participle past)
grounden (archaic participle past)
grind (infinitive)
grind (first-person present singular)
grinded (first-person past singular)
grind (present second-person singular)
grinded (past second-person singular)
grinds (present singular third-person)
grinded (past singular third-person)
grind (plural present)
grinded (past plural)
grind (present subjunctive)
grinded (past subjunctive)
grind (imperative present)
grinding (participle present)
grinded (participle past)

From Middle English grynden, from Old English grindan, from Proto-West Germanic *grindan, from Proto-Germanic *grindaną.
Cognate with Saterland Frisian gríende, griene (“to grind, mill”), Dutch grinden (“to grind”, rare) and grind (“gravel, shingle”), Albanian grind (“to brawl, fight”).

the mill cannot grind with water that is past

I need to pontificate on something that really grinds me. So here goes. I am sick and tired of lazy thinkers using the defense of “legislated morality.”

2003, Steven Wunderink, Minding Your Spiritual Business: Life Stories with Life Sense, page 139:

(transitive, slang) To annoy or irritate (a person); to grind one's gears.


grind

From Faroese grind (“pilot-whale meat”).

A traditional communal pilot whale hunt in the Faroe Islands.


meet

From Middle English meten, from Old English mētan (“to meet, find, encounter”), from Proto-West Germanic *mōtijan (“to meet”), from Proto-Germanic *mōtijaną (“to meet”), from Proto-Indo-European *meh₂d- (“to come, meet”).
Cognates
Cognate with Scots met, mete, meit (“to meet”), North Frisian mete (“to meet”), West Frisian mette, moetsje (“to meet”), Dutch ontmoeten (“to meet”), Low German möten (“to meet”), Danish møde (“to meet”), Norwegian Bokmål møte (“to meet”), Swedish möta (“to meet”), Icelandic mæta (“to meet”). Related to moot.

der

(hunting) A gathering of riders, horses and hounds for foxhunting; a field meet for hunting.


set

en-verb

set (third-person singular simple present sets, present participle setting, simple past set, past participle set or (dialectal) setten)

sets (present singular third-person)
setting (participle present)
set (past)
set (participle past)
setten (dialectal participle past)

desctree

→ Japanese: セット (setto)
→ Hokkien: siat-to͘h

From Middle English setten, from Old English settan, from Proto-West Germanic *sattjan, from Proto-Germanic *satjaną, from Proto-Indo-European *sodéyeti, causative of *sed- (“to sit”).

set a beggar on horseback and he'll ride to the Devil

The dog sets the bird.

Your dog sets well.

(hunting, ambitransitive) Of a dog, to indicate the position of game.


whip

→ Irish: fuip

⇒ Jamaican Creole: wip

From Middle English whippen, wippen (“to flap violently”), from Middle Dutch wippen (“to swing, leap, dance, oscillate”) and Middle Low German wippen (“to move quickly”), from Proto-Germanic *wipjaną (“to move back and forth”). Some similarity to Sanskrit root वेप् (vep, “shake, flourish”), Latin vibrō (“I shake”). (See Swedish vippa and Danish vippe (“to shake”)).
The unetymological wh- is probably expressive of the sound of a whip; compare the same development in whisk and onomatopoeias such as whack and whoosh.
The political senses are from whipper-in (“huntsman who keeps the hounds from wandering”), 18th century hunting terminology.

der

At half-past ten, Tom Moody, Sir Huddlestone Fuddlestone's huntsman, was seen trotting up the avenue, followed by the noble pack of hounds in a compact body—the rear being brought up by the two whips clad in stained scarlet frocks—light hard-featured lads on well-bred lean horses, possessing marvellous dexterity in casting the points of their long heavy whips at the thinnest part of any dog's skin who dares to straggle from the main body […]

1847 January – 1848 July, William Makepeace Thackeray, Vanity Fair […], London: Bradbury and Evans […], published 1848, →OCLC:

From the far side of the wood came the long shrill screech […] which signifies that one of the whips has viewed the fox quitting the covert.

1928, Siegfried Sassoon, Memoirs of a Fox-Hunting Man, Penguin, published 2013, page 27:


lift

en-verb

lift (third-person singular simple present lifts, present participle lifting, simple past lifted or (rare, regional, obsolete) lift, past participle lifted or (rare, regional, obsolete) lift or (obsolete) yleft)

lifts (present singular third-person)
lifting (participle present)
lifted (past)
lift (obsolete past rare regional)
lifted (participle past)
lift (obsolete participle past rare regional)
yleft (obsolete participle past)

From Middle English liften, lyften, from Old Norse lypta (“to lift, air”, literally “to raise in the air”), from Proto-Germanic *luftijaną (“to raise in the air”), related to *luftuz (“roof, air”), perhaps from Proto-Indo-European *lewp- (“to peel, break off, damage”) or from a root meaning roof (see *luftuz). Cognate with Danish and Norwegian Bokmål løfte (“to lift”), Norwegian Nynorsk and Swedish lyfta (“to lift”), German lüften (“to air, lift”), Old English lyft (“air”). See above. 1851 for the noun sense "a mechanical device for vertical transport".
(To steal): For this sense Cleasby suggests perhaps a relation to the root of Gothic 𐌷𐌻𐌹𐍆𐍄𐌿𐍃 (hliftus) "thief", cognate with Latin cleptus and Greek κλέπτω (kléptō)).

der

I lifted the hounds (hoping to catch the leading ones there) to the far side of Hallaton Thorns.

1885, Lina Chaworth Musters, Book of Hunting Songs and Sport, page 144:

(hunting, transitive) To take (hounds) off the existing scent and move them to another spot.


put up

en-verb

put up (third-person singular simple present puts up, present participle putting up, simple past and past participle put up)

puts up (present singular third-person)
putting up (participle present)
put up (participle past)
put up (past)

"By George! they'll have something to excite them if they put us up."

1912, Arthur Conan Doyle, The Lost World […], London; New York, N.Y.: Hodder and Stoughton, →OCLC:

(hunting, transitive) To cause (wild game) to break cover.


feather

feathers (plural)
fether (alternative archaic)

From Middle English feþer, from Old English feþer, from Proto-West Germanic *feþru, from Proto-Germanic *feþrō, from Proto-Indo-European *péth₂r̥ (“feather, wing”), from *peth₂- (“to fly”).
See also West Frisian fear, German Low German Fedder, Dutch veder, veer, German Feder, Yiddish פֿעדער (feder), Danish fjer, Swedish fjäder, Icelandic fjöður, Faroese fjøður, Norwegian Bokmål fjær, fjør, Norwegian Nynorsk fjør. Also Ancient Greek πέτομαι (pétomai), Albanian shpend (“bird”), Latin penna, Old Armenian թիռ (tʻiṙ).
The sense correlated with splines and keys (sense 4) probably reflects analogy with the fletching sense (sense 3).

inh

(hunting, in the plural) Partridges and pheasants, as opposed to rabbits and hares (called fur).


roadster

(UK, dated, slang) A hunter who keeps to the roads instead of following the hounds across country.


knock out

en-verb

knock out (third-person singular simple present knocks out, present participle knocking out, simple past and past participle knocked out)

knocks out (present singular third-person)
knocking out (participle present)
knocked out (participle past)
knocked out (past)

→ Macedonian: нокаут (nokaut)

→ Portuguese: nocaute

→ Russian: нокаут (nokaut)

→ Serbo-Croatian: нокаут

→ Spanish: nocaut

→ Turkish: nakavt

The allergy pill knocked him out for a good three hours.

(transitive, informal, idiomatic) To put to sleep.

To strike or render unconscious
To put to sleep.

To lose the scent of hounds in fox-hunting.

"Hullo!" he said, getting up; "time for me to knock out, or old Copas will be in bed. […]"

1861, Thomas Hughes, Tom Brown at Oxford, London: Macmillan and Co., published 1883, page 503:

(obsolete, Oxford University slang) To leave college after hours—after half-past ten at night when the doors have been locked.


ruse

en-noun

ruse (countable and uncountable, plural ruses)

From Middle English rūse (“evasive movements of a pursued animal; circuitous course taken by a hunter to pursue a game animal”), from Old French rëuse, ruse (“evasive movements of a pursued animal; trickery”) (modern French ruse (“trick, ruse; cunning, guile”)), from ruser (“to use cunning, to be crafty, beguile”), possibly from Latin rursus (“backward; on the contrary; again, in return”) or Latin recūsāre, from recūsō (“to decline, refuse; to object to, protest, reject”). Doublet of recuse and rouse in the latter case.
The verb is derived from the noun. Compare Middle French ruser (“to use cunning, to be crafty, beguile”); see further above.

cog

The boar was evidently most averse to leave the field in which he had spent so may pleasant hours of uninterrupted rest; […] He turned sharply to one flank; he stopped dead, and went away in the opposite direction as he heard the hunters gallop past; every ruse he tried, but tried in vain.

1867, J. T. Newall, chapter XVII, in Hog Hunting in the East, and Other Sports, London: Tinsley Brothers, […], →OCLC, pages 367–368:

(countable, often hunting, archaic, rare) A turning or doubling back, especially of animals to get out of the way of hunting dogs.


ruse

en-verb

ruse (third-person singular simple present ruses, present participle rusing, simple past and past participle rused)

ruses (present singular third-person)
rusing (participle present)
rused (participle past)
rused (past)

And he [the hart] fleeth then mightily and far from the hounds, that is to say he hath gone a great way from them, then he will go into the stank, and will soil therein once or twice in all the stank and then he will come out again by the same way that he went in, and then he shall ruse again the same way that he came (the length of) a bow shot or more, and then he shall ruse out of the way, for to stall or squatt to rest him, and that he doeth for he knoweth well that the hounds shall come by the fues [footing] into the stank where he was.

c. 1425, Edward, Second Duke of York [i.e., Edward of Norwich, 2nd Duke of York], “Of the Hart and His Nature”, in W[illia]m A[dolf] Baillie-Grohman, F[lorence] Baillie-Grohman, editors, The Master of Game by Edward, Second Duke of York: The Oldest English Book on Hunting, London: Chatto & Windus, published 1909, →OCLC, page 33:

With these whelps [the hunting dogs] who know the way but are in danger of being baffled by the rusing stag, the hunter sends the reliable old harre (perseverance). He is indispensable, as he has often confronted the stag at bay.

1974, Marcelle Thiébaux, “Medieval Allegories of the Love Chase”, in The Stag of Love: The Chase in Medieval Literature, Ithaca, N.Y., London: Cornell University Press, published 2014, →ISBN, page 190:

In the parallel hunt of Octovian, the hart has rused and momentarily escaped. With the death of White, the Knight's heart is wounded and his life is endangered but he escapes for a time as does the hart, though the hunter Death will ultimately be successful in both cases.

1988, “Hunt”, in Jean-Charles Seigneuret, editor, Dictionary of Literary Themes and Motifs, volumes 1 (A–J), Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, →ISBN, page 642:

Sometimes the stag would throw the hounds off the scent by a series of clever ruses—for example, by retracing a part of his path and leaping dramatically in one direction. […] Ultimately, the stag would tire, and its signals of exhaustion (short rusing runs, downwind flight, and the narrowing of the toe prints) would be evident to the trackers.

1991, Thomas S. Henricks, “Sport in the Later Middle Ages”, in Disputed Pleasures: Sport and Society in Preindustrial England (Contributions to the Study of World History; no. 28), Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, →ISBN, →ISSN, page 46:

(intransitive, hunting, archaic, rare) Of an animal: to turn or double back to elude hunters or their hunting dogs.


carry

carry (third-person singular simple present carries, present participle carrying, simple past and past participle carried)

carries (present singular third-person)
carrying (participle present)
carried (participle past)
carried (past)

borrow

the equivalent reverse procedure in the inverse operation of subtraction

→ Cantonese: carry

From Middle English carien, from Anglo-Norman carier (modern French charrier); from a derivative of Latin carrus (“four-wheeled baggage wagon”), ultimately of Gaulish origin.

tīhei

on the back but held in place with hands

mackerel sky and mare's-tails make lofty ships carry low sails

mackerel sky and mare's-tails make tall ships carry low sails

one can't carry two watermelons under one arm

The frost[…]caused the fallows and seeds to ‘carry’ a good deal, and they could only hunt very slowly.

(hunting) To have earth or frost stick to the feet when running, as a hare.


slip

en-verb

slip (third-person singular simple present slips, present participle slipping, simple past and past participle slipped or (obsolete) slipt)

slips (present singular third-person)
slipping (participle present)
slipped (participle past)
slipped (past)
slipt (obsolete participle past)
slipt (obsolete past)

From Middle English slippen, probably from Middle Low German slippen, from Old Saxon *slippian, from Proto-West Germanic *slippjan, from Proto-Germanic *slipjaną (“to glide”), an iterative form of *slīpaną (“to slip, slide”), from Proto-Indo-European *sleyb- (“slimy; to slide”). Possibly ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *slewbʰ- (“slip, slide”), or related to Proto-Germanic *slībaną (“to split”); related to Old English slipor (“slippery”).
Cognate with Saterland Frisian slipje (“to slip”), Dutch slippen (“to slip”), German Low German slippen, slupen (“to slip”), German schlüpfen (“to slip”).

der

Lucento slipped me like his greyhound.

c. 1590–1592 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Taming of the Shrew”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act V, scene ii]:

'Well, it was one morning early in the spring,' said Lars, 'that I started for Linderudsœter, where I slipped Rap, and he was soon in full cry and made the hillside ring.'

1881, P. Chr. Asbjörnsen [i.e., Peter Christen Asbjørnsen], translated by H. L. Brækstad, Round the Yule Log. Norwegian Folk and Fairy Tales, London: Sampson Low, Marston, Searle, & Rivington, →OCLC, page 78:

(transitive, hunting, falconry) To release (a dog, a bird of prey, etc.) to go after a quarry.


pattern

en-verb

pattern (third-person singular simple present patterns, present participle patterning, simple past and past participle patterned)

patterns (present singular third-person)
patterning (participle present)
patterned (participle past)
patterned (past)

From earlier patten, paterne, from Middle English patron (“patron; example”), from Old French patron, from Medieval Latin patrōnus (“patron”). Doublet of padrone, patron, Patronus, and patroon.

doublet

(hunting, transitive) To observe an animal closely over time in order to discern its habitual movements and behaviours.


stale

From Middle English stale (“bird used as a decoy”), probably from uncommon Anglo-Norman estale (“pigeon used to lure hawks”), ultimately from Proto-Germanic, probably *standaną (“to stand”). Compare Old English stælhran (“decoy reindeer”) and Northumbrian stællo (“catching fish”).

der

Like vnto the fowlers, that by their stales draw other birdes into their nets.

1579, Thomas North, “Sylla”, in Lives of the Noble Grecians and Romans, section 515:

A wife thats more then faire is like a stale, Or chanting whistle which brings birds to thrall.

1608, Ludovico Ariosto, translated by R. Tofte, Satyres, IV 56:

(falconry, hunting, obsolete) A live bird to lure birds of prey or others of its kind into a trap.

'Tis the living bird that makes the best stale to draw others into the net.

1681, J. Flavell, Method of Grace, XXXV 588:

If my live birds aren't all drownded and my stales spoiled.

1888, G. M. Fenn, Dick o' the Fens, section 53:

(hunting, obsolete) Any decoy, either stuffed or manufactured.


pointer

From point + -er (agent noun suffix) or + -er (measurement suffix) (sense 10).

күрһәткес

anything that points or is used for pointing

Most of the early wirehaired pointers represented a combination of Griffon, Stichelhaar, Pudelpointer, and German Shorthair. The Pudelpointer was a cross between a Poodle dog and an English Pointer bitch; the Griffon and the Stichelhaar were composed of Pointer, Foxhound, Pudelpointer, and a Polish water dog.

2007, American Kennel Club, The Complete Dog Book, Ballantine Books, →ISBN, page 30:

Anything that points or is used for pointing.

(hunting) A breed of hunting dog, trained to point out game.


beater

From Middle English beter, betere, bettere, from Old English bēatere (“a beater; boxer, fighter; champion”), equivalent to beat + -er. Related to beetle (“a type of mallet”).

inh

The beaters halted in a group to watch, and some of them could not refrain from clicking their tongues; they thought it queer and rather shocking to see a woman handle a gun.

1934, George Orwell, chapter 14, in Burmese Days:

"Our beaters are doing a marvellous job, just listen to them, will you?"

1936, F.J. Thwaites, chapter XV, in The Redemption, Sydney: H. John Edwards, published 1940, page 158:

A person who drives game towards shooters in a hunting party, typically working in a group with other beaters.

drijver

person who drives game towards the shooters


wardrobe

From Middle English warderobe, from Old Northern French warderoube, wardereube, northern variants of Old French garderobe, from garder (“to keep safe”) + robe. Subsequently influenced by various senses of garderobe as they developed in French. Doublet of garderobe.

(hunting, obsolete) Badger feces, particularly used in tracking game.


fur

en-noun

fur (countable and uncountable, plural furs)

From Middle English furre, forre, from Anglo-Norman forre, fuerre (“a case; sheath”), from Frankish *fōdar, from Proto-West Germanic *fōdr, from Proto-Germanic *fōdrą (“sheath”) (compare Old English fōdor (“sheaf”), Dutch voering (“lining”), German Futter (“lining”), Gothic 𐍆𐍉𐌳𐍂 (fōdr, “sheath”)), from Proto-Indo-European *peh₂-, *poh₂- (“to protect”) (compare Lithuanian piemuō (“protection”), Ancient Greek πῶυ (pôu, “flock”), πῶμα (pôma, “lid”), ποιμήν (poimḗn, “shepherd”), Old Armenian հաւրան (hawran, “herd, flock”), Northern Kurdish pawan (“to watch over”), Sanskrit पाति (pāti, “he watches, protects”).
The verb is from Middle English furren, from Anglo-Norman furrer, forrer, fourrer (“to line, stuff, fill”), from the noun.

cog

(hunting, uncountable) Rabbits and hares, as opposed to partridges and pheasants (called feathers).


foil

[…]but after giving her a dodge, here's another b— follows me upon the foil.

1749, Henry Fielding, chapter IV, in The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling, volume (please specify |volume=I to VI), London: A[ndrew] Millar, […], →OCLC, book VII:


flapper

Small fish, and frog and fish spawn are also eaten, and the ducklings feed upon many species of animalculæ, flies, pollywogs and worms, etc., disturbed by heavy rains which wash the banks, while the young ducks are passing to the "flapper" stage.

1904, F. Henry Yorke, "Our American Game Birds: Their Life History and Mode of Hunting Them," Field and Stream, Vol. 9, no. 3 (July 1904), pp. 255—56

(hunting) A young game bird just able to fly, particularly a wild duck.


bush

From Middle English bush, from Old English busċ, *bysċ (“copse, grove, scrub”, in placenames), from Proto-West Germanic *busk, from Proto-Germanic *buskaz (“bush, thicket”), probably from Proto-Indo-European *bʰuH- (“to grow”). Doublet of bosque.
Cognate with West Frisian bosk (“forest”), Dutch bos (“forest”), German Busch (“bush”), Danish and Norwegian busk (“bush, shrub”), Swedish buske (“bush, shrub”), Persian بیشه (bêša/biše, “woods”). Latin and Romance forms (Latin boscus, Occitan bòsc, French bois, bûche and buisson, Italian bosco and boscaglia, Spanish bosque, Portuguese bosque) derive from the Germanic.

inh

a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush


pinch

en-verb

pinch (third-person singular simple present pinches, present participle pinching, simple past and past participle pinched)

pinches (present singular third-person)
pinching (participle present)
pinched (participle past)
pinched (past)

From Middle English pinchen, from Old Northern French *pinchier (compare Old French pincier, pincer (“to pinch”)), a word of uncertain origin, possibly from Vulgar Latin *pinciāre (“to puncture, pinch”), from a merger of *punctiāre (“to puncture, sting”), from Latin punctiō (“a puncture, prick”) and *piccāre (“to strike, sting”), from Frankish *pikkōn, from Proto-Germanic *pikkōną (“to pick, peck, prick”). More at point, pick and pitch.

der

(hunting) To take hold; to grip, as a dog does.


challenge

→ French: challenge (orthographic)

→ Japanese: チャレンジ (charenji)

→ Russian: че́ллендж (čéllendž)

/ˈt͡ʃæl.ɪnd͡ʒ/

/ˈt͡ʃæl.ənd͡ʒ/

From Middle English chalenge, variant with palatalization of Middle English kalange (“an accusation, claim”), from Old French chalenge, chalonge, palatalized Central French variants of Old Northern French calenge, calonge (see Continental Norman calengier), from Latin calumnia (“a false accusation, calumny”), from Proto-Indo-European *ḱeh₁l-, *keh₁l- (“to beguile, deceive”). Cognate with Old English hōl (“calumny”). Doublet of calumny.

der

(hunting) The opening and crying of hounds upon first finding the scent of their game.


entry

en-noun

entry (countable and uncountable, plural entries)

exit

antonym(s) of “doorway that provides a means of entering a building”

Inherited from Middle English entre, from Old French entree (feminine past participle of the verb entrer, Modern French entrée). From Latin intrō. Doublet of entrada and entrée.

Here was an excellent entry of hounds which would have fulfilled the late Earl Bathurst's dictum that breeders should always breed from hounds rather larger than those which they expect to put on.

1956, Baily's Hunting Directory, page 311:

en:introduction of new hounds into a pack

(hunting) The introduction of new hounds into a pack.


harpoon

From Old French harpon, from Latin harpaga, a rare variant of Latin harpagō, from Ancient Greek ἁρπάγη (harpágē, “hook”), from ἁρπάζω (harpázō, “to snatch away, to carry off, to seize, to captivate”). Sense and spelling perhaps influenced by Dutch harpoen (“harpoon”). Doublet of harpagon.

A spearlike weapon with a barbed head used in hunting whales and large fish.


fault

From Middle English faute, faulte, from Anglo-Norman faute, Old French faute, from Vulgar Latin *fallita (“shortcoming”), feminine of *fallitus, in place of Latin falsus, perfect passive participle of fallō (“deceive”). Displaced native Middle English schuld, schuild (“fault”) (from Old English scyld (“fault”)), Middle English lac (“fault, lack”) (from Middle Dutch lak (“lack, fault”)), Middle English last (“fault, vice”) (from Old Norse lǫstr (“fault, vice, crime”)). Compare French faute (“fault, foul”), Portuguese falta (“lack, shortage”) and Spanish falta (“lack, absence”). More at fail, false.

cog

Ceasing their clamorous cry till they have singled, / With much ado, the cold fault clearly out.

1593, [William Shakespeare], Venus and Adonis, London: […] Richard Field, […], →OCLC:

A point at which something is divided, interrupted, or disconnected.

(hunting) A loss of the scent being tracked by a hound.


upright

uprights (plural)
vpright (alternative obsolete)

From Middle English upright, uppryght, upriht, from Old English upriht (“upright; erect”), from Proto-Germanic *upprehtaz, equivalent to up- + right. Cognate with Saterland Frisian apgjucht (“upright”), West Frisian oprjocht (“upright”), Dutch oprecht (“upright”), German Low German uprecht (“upright”), German aufrecht (“upright”), Swedish upprätt (“upright”), Icelandic uppréttur (“upright”).

muntant

any vertical part of a structure, especially one of the goal posts in sports

(obsolete, hunting, dialect, British) The tips of the antlers of a young deer.


on foot

From Middle English on fote, from Old English on fōte (“on foot”), equivalent to on + foot.

(now rare, chiefly hunting) On the move; astir.

مَاشِيًا

walking, jogging, running — see also afoot


wastage

en-noun

wastage (countable and uncountable, plural wastages)

(hunting, countable) The act of abandoning animal carcasses or parts, usually illegal.


staunch

en-adj

staunch (comparative stauncher, superlative staunchest)

stauncher (comparative)
staunchest (superlative)
stanch (alternative)

From Middle English staunch, staunche (“(adjective) in good condition or repair; solidly made, firm; watertight; of a person or wound: not bleeding; certain; intact; (adverb) firmly, soundly”) [and other forms], from Anglo-Norman estaunche, Old French estanche (“firm; watertight”) (modern French étanche (“airtight; watertight”)), a variant of estanc (“a pond”), from estanchier (“to stop the flow of a liquid (blood, water, etc.); to make (something) watertight; to quench (thirst)”) (modern French étancher), possibly from one of the following:
* From Vulgar Latin *stagnicāre, from Latin stāgnum (“piece of standing water, pond; fen, swamp”), possibly from Proto-Indo-European *steh₂g- (“to drip; to seep”).
* From Vulgar Latin *stānticāre, from *stānticus (“tired”), from Latin stāns, stāntis (“standing; remaining, staying”). Stāns is the present active participle of stō (“to stand; to remain, stay”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *steh₂- (“to stand (up)”).
Cognates
* Italian stanco (“bored; tired”)
* Portuguese estanque (“watertight”)
* Romansch staunza (“a room”)
* Spanish estanco (“closed, sealed; airtight; watertight”)

верен

dependable, loyal, reliable, trustworthy — see also dependable, loyal, reliable, trustworthy

[T]he horſemen & huntſmen ſhould blemiſh at ſuch places as they ſee the Hart enter into a thicket or couert to the end that if the hounds fall to change, they may return to thoſe blemiſhes, and put their hounds to the right ſlot and view, vntill they haue rowzed or found him againe with their bloudhound, or with ſome other ſtanch old hound of the kennell, in the which they may aſſie themſelues. For old ſtaunch houndes which will not hunt change, when they ſee an Hart rowzed & before them, they neuer call on, nor once open: but if they be young raſh houndes, they will runne with full cry & ſo take change.

1575, Jacques du Fouilloux, “Certaine Observations and Subtleties to be Used by Huntsmen in Hunting an Hart at Force”, in George Gascoigne, transl., The Noble Art of Venerie or Hunting. […], London: […] Thomas Purfoot, published 1611, →OCLC, page 112:

For, scarce a spear's length from his haunch, / Vindictive toiled the blood-hounds staunch; […]

1810, Walter Scott, “Canto I. The Chase.”, in The Lady of the Lake; […], Edinburgh: […] [James Ballantyne and Co.] for John Ballantyne and Co.; London: Longman, Hurst, Rees, and Orme, and William Miller, →OCLC, stanza VII, page 10:

Beatte especially, was as staunch as a veteran hound.

1835, [Washington Irving], “A Hunt for a Lost Comrade”, in A Tour on the Prairies (The Crayon Miscellany; no. 1), Philadelphia, Pa.: [Henry Charles] Carey, [Isaac] Lea, & Blanchard, →OCLC, page 237:

Dependable, loyal, reliable, trustworthy.

(chiefly hunting) Of a hunting dog: that can be depended on to pick up the scent of, or to mark, game.


huntsman

One who manages the hounds during a hunt.

Although they do not make webs, female huntsmans at least have not lost the ability to produce silk.

1985, Living Australia, Dangerous Australians: The Complete Guide to Australia's Most Deadly Creatures, page 111:

The majority of desert-dwelling spiders are large burrowing spiders; the Barking Spiders Selenoeosmia stirlingi, mouse spiders, wolf spiders (Fig. 5.47), huntsmen and trapdoor spiders (Fig. 5.48).

1995, Anne Kerle, Ayers Rock, the Olgas & Kings Canyon, Northern Territory, page 129:

to say trapdoors and huntsmans

2002, John Kinsella, “The Wasps”, in Divinations: Four Plays:

Two huntsmen spiders prowl Harry′s bedroom ceiling.

2012, Carrie Tiffany, Mateship with Birds, Pan Macmillan Australia, unnumbered page:

Any of the many species of large spiders of the family Sparassidae.


run down

en-verb

run down (third-person singular simple present runs down, present participle running down, simple past ran down, past participle run down)

runs down (present singular third-person)
running down (participle present)
ran down (past)
run down (participle past)

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-run down.wav

to run down a stag

(hunting) To chase till the object pursued is captured or exhausted.

загнать

to chase till the object pursued is captured or exhausted


puss

en-noun

puss (countable and uncountable, plural pusses)

Probably from Middle Low German pūs, pūskatte or Dutch poes (“puss, cat”, slang for “vulva”), ultimately from a common Germanic word for cat, perhaps ultimately imitative of a sound made to get its attention (compare Arabic بسة (bissa)).
Akin to West Frisian poes, Low German Puus, Puuskatte, Danish pus, dialectal Swedish kattepus, Norwegian pus.
Found also in several other European, North African and Asian languages; compare Romanian pisică, Persian پیشی (piši), Tamil பூசை (pūcai), Tagalog pusa
and Sardinian pisittu.

onomatopoeic

imitative

He then began to beat about, in the ſame Language, and in the ſame Manner, as if he had been beating for a Hare, and at laſt cried out, 'Soho! Puſs is not far off. Here's her Form, upon my Soul; I believe I may cry ſtole away.'

1749, Henry Fielding, “In which is seen a more moving Spectacle, than all the Blood in the Bodies of Thwackum and Blifil and of Twenty other such, is capable of producing”, in The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling, volume II, London: A[ndrew] Millar, […], →OCLC, book V, page 220:

'[…] It won't kill Puss any better for that.' / "'But, goodness gracious, what can that hare be made of?' I asked.

1881, P. Chr. Asbjörnsen [i.e., Peter Christen Asbjørnsen], “A Day with the Capercailzies”, in H. L. Brækstad, transl., Round the Yule Log. Norwegian Folk and Fairy Tales, London: Sampson Low, Marston, Searle, & Rivington, →OCLC, page 77:


relay

From Middle French relai (“reserve pack of hounds”), from relaier (“to exchange tired animals for fresh”); literally, "to leave behind", from Old French relaier (“to leave behind”), from re- + laier (“to leave”), of uncertain origin.

váltó

competition between teams where members of a team take turns completing parts of a course or performing a certain action — see also relay race


relay

en-verb

relay (third-person singular simple present relays, present participle relaying, simple past and past participle relayed)

relays (present singular third-person)
relaying (participle present)
relayed (participle past)
relayed (past)

(obsolete, intransitive, hunting) To release a new set of hounds.


casting

en-noun

casting (countable and uncountable, plural castings)

From Middle English castyng, castinge, equivalent to cast + -ing.

"The dogs were no sooner let loose, than the hare was afoot. This time there was no stopping or casting, but the hounds were soon in full cry, and after half-an-hour's run, the hare came dancing down the moor towards me."

1886, Peter Christen Asbjørnsen, translated by H.L. Brækstad, Folk and Fairy Tales, page 77:

(hunting) Of hounds, the act of spreading out and searching for a scent.


bullfinch

bullfinches (plural)
bull-finch (alternative)

Young Hurrell turned them on the right; the officer on the polo pony and Mr. Westall, between them, dissected a "bullfinch" on the left, but the ditch and the briars took toll of the former.

1900, H. B. Yerburgh, Leaves from a hunting diary in Essex, page 180:

(UK, archaic, hunting, slang) A large, thick quickset hedge.


booner

Suggestions are:
* From boondocks.
* From the name of the town of Boonah or the Shire of Boonah, Queensland.

(Australia, chiefly Canberra, slang) A person who takes particular pride in their car and enjoys showing it off.


booner

(US) A trophy size big game animal, as measured by the Boone and Crockett ranking criteria.


owling

From owl + -ing. Smuggling of sheep is so called because it was done at night, when owls call.

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-owling.wav


decoy

From Dutch de + kooi, literally "the cage". Possibly related to verb coy (which itself may have been influenced by decoy).

A person or object meant to lure somebody into danger.

прима́мка

person or object meant to lure something to danger


screamer

I had seen the track of the bear they were after, and I knowed he was a screamer.

1917, David Crockett, “The Bear Hunt”, in Maurice Garland Fulton, editor, Southern Life in Southern Literature:

(obsolete, US, hunting) A healthy, vigorous animal.


ferreting

ferreting (countable and uncountable, plural ferretings)


falconry

falconry (countable and uncountable, plural falconries)

...looking up, I observed a very slight and graceful hawk, like a night-hawk, alternately soaring like a ripple and tumbling a rod or two over and over, showing the underside of its wings, which gleamed like a satin ribbon in the sun, or like the pearly inside of a shell. This sight reminded me of falconry and what nobleness and poetry are associated with that sport.

1854, Henry David Thoreau, Walden, or Life in the Woods:

The sport of hunting by using trained birds of prey, especially falcons and hawks.


hark back

en-verb

hark back (third-person singular simple present harks back, present participle harking back, simple past and past participle harked back)

harks back (present singular third-person)
harking back (participle present)
harked back (participle past)
harked back (past)

From hark (“to listen attentively”) + back (“to or in a previous condition or place”, adverb), originally a hunting command to hounds meaning “Listen! Go back!”.

(hunting) Of hounds: to retrace a course in order to pick up the lost scent of prey.

hakea jälki uudelleen

of hounds: to retrace a course in order to pick up the lost scent of prey

(transitive, hunting) To call back (hounds); to recall.


hark back

hark backs (plural)
hark-back (alternative)

(hunting) An act of hounds retracing a course in order to pick up the lost scent of prey.


gamely

en-adj

gamely (comparative gamelier or more gamely, superlative gameliest or most gamely)

gamelier (comparative)
more gamely (comparative)
gameliest (superlative)
most gamely (superlative)

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-gamely.wav

From game + -ly; compare Old English gamenlīċ (“belonging to games, sportive, theatrical, ridiculous”) and Middle High German gāmelich, gemelich (“joyful”).

cog

The black bass was strongly recommended as a gamely creature and as excellent for the table, and it was put into Meeting-house Pond.

1893, William Sweetzer Heywood, History of Westminster, Massachusetts:

(hunting, fishing, etc.) Of or pertaining to game.


recheat

Probably from Anglo-Norman; compare Old French racheter (“rally”).

[B]ut that I vvill haue a rechate vvinded in my forehead, or hang my bugle in an inuiſible baldricke, all vvomen ſhall pardon mee: becauſe I vvill not doe them the vvrong to miſtruſt any, I vvill doe my ſelfe the right to truſt none: […]

[1598–1599 (first performance), William Shakespeare, Much Adoe about Nothing. […], quarto edition, London: […] V[alentine] S[immes] for Andrew Wise, and William Aspley, published 1600, →OCLC, [Act I, scene i], signature [A4], verso:

Prior, that last flourish on the recheat hath added fifty crowns to thy ransom, for corrupting the true old manly blasts of venerie.

1819 December 20 (indicated as 1820), Walter Scott, Ivanhoe; a Romance. […], volume (please specify |volume=I to III), Edinburgh: […] Archibald Constable and Co.; London: Hurst, Robinson, and Co. […], →OCLC:

(archaic) A series of notes blown on a horn as a signal in hunting to call back the hounds when they have lost track of the game.


quartering

(hunting) Searching for prey by traversing a space. From hunting for game, where dogs will run parallel to the wind in search of a scent, thereby 'quatering' the field.


cocking

en-noun

cocking (countable and uncountable, plural cockings)

From cock (“a male bird, esp. a rooster; many derivatives, incl. penis”) + -ing (forming participles).


foiling

(hunting) The track of game, such as deer, in the grass.


cooning

At this time, cooning in the remote interior is a famous pastime. As this animal is entirely nocturnal in its habits it is hunted only at night.

1876, John Burroughs, Winter Sunshine, part 1, Hurd and Houghton, page 76

But if he [the dog] strikes a trail, you presently hear...loud and repeated barking as he reaches the foot of the tree in which the coon has taken refuge. Then follows a pellmell rush of the cooning party up the hill, into the woods, through the brush and the darkness

1875, John Burroughs, Winter Sunshine, part 2, Kessinger Publishing (2004), pages 72–73

These are the kind of men who have served their time and taken all the six degrees necessary to a scout's full education, “foxing, snaking, moling, cooning, possuming, and, if need be, wolfing ;” who riding at a canter through the woods, will stop their horse...

1932, The Atlantic Monthly, volume information kept strictly confidential by Google Books, page 635

I met Colonel Davy a-going out a-cooning,
Says I, “Davy Crockett, how do you hunt without a gun?”
“Oh,” says he, “Pompey Smash, if you’ll follow along with Davy,
I’ll soon show you how for to grin a coon crazy.”

1950, William A. Owens, compiler, Texas Folk Songs, page 245:

“Aren’t there any Coons ’round here, Mr. Clark?”

1962, Ernest Thompson Seton, Two Little Savages, Courier Dover Publications,, →ISBN, page 276:

“Oh, I reckon so. Y-e-s! Down a piece in the hardwood bush near Widdy Biddy Baggs’s place there’s lots o’ likely Cooning ground.”


nuzzle

en-verb

nuzzle (third-person singular simple present nuzzles, present participle nuzzling, simple past and past participle nuzzled)

nuzzles (present singular third-person)
nuzzling (participle present)
nuzzled (participle past)
nuzzled (past)

Origin uncertain; appears to have a separate origin from nuzzle (etymology 1) due to the different meanings, but probably influenced by that word.

Often followed by '''up or with: to nurture or train (oneself or someone) to act a certain way, have certain beliefs, etc.

(falconry, hunting) To train (a dog or hawk) to attack prey.


stably

From Middle English stablie, from Anglo-Norman stablie.

As described in chapter three, classic bow and stably hunting in the later Middle Ages and early Renaissance involved hunters waiting on foot at stands or stations for the driven quarry to appear within bowshot.

2011, Richard Almond, Medieval Hunting, page 140:

Additions to the present manuscript found in no other contemporary manuscripts include passages on blowing the "prise", an account of fox-hunting, and a section on hunting with bow and stably (in which deer are driven past ready bowmen).

2011, Yale University Library, notes on: William Twiti (d. 1328), The craft of venery

Twiti's discussion of hunting deer with bow and a pack of greyhounds (or “stably”) to drive them past the waiting archers is similar, for example, to that in Gawain and the Green Knight, and such hunting practices are referred to in Chaucer’s Troilus and Criseyde, The Book of the Duchess, and The Franklin's Tale.

2011, John B. Friedman, review of: David Scott-Macnab, The Middle English Text of The Art of Hunting by William Twiti. The Journal of English and Germanic Philology, vol. 110, no. 4, pp. 545-547

(hunting, historical) A medieval hunting practice in which a group of hunters and hounds are stationed around the perimeter of a wood during a hunt to prevent the escape of the game.


stalking horse

stalking horses (plural)
stalking-horse (alternative)

(dated, hunting) A horse used as cover by a hunter stalking game.

засло́нная ло́шадь

a horse used as cover by a hunter stalking game


scut

Associated University Presses
Folger Shakespeare Library
Henry IV, Part 2

From Middle English scut (“hare”); further etymology uncertain, possibly related to Middle English scut, scute (“short”), possibly from Old French escorter, escurter, or Latin excurtāre, scurtāre, from curtō (“to cut short, shorten”), from curtus (“short; shortened”) (from Proto-Indo-European *(s)ker- (“to cut off”)) + -ō. A derivation from Old Norse skut, skutr (“stern of a boat”), or Icelandic skott (“animal's tail”) is thought to be unlikely.
As to sense 3 (“the female pudenda, the vulva”), see the letter of 5 June 1875 from Joseph Crosby to Joseph Parker Norris published in One Touch of Shakespeare (1986).

der

(obsolete) A hare; (hunting, also figuratively) a hare as the game in a hunt.


gillie

gillies (plural)
ghillie (alternative)
gilly (alternative)

From Scottish Gaelic gille (“helper”), from Middle Irish gilla (“youth, young man; boy, male child; messenger, page, servant”), possibly borrowed from Old Norse gildr (“brawny, stout; of full worth”). Compare Irish giolla (“boy”).

Every deerstalker will bear witness to the eagerness of Highlanders in pursuit of their old favourite game, the dun deer; the mountaineer shews what he is when his eye kindles and his nostril dilates at the sight of a noble stag; when the gillie forgets his master in his keenness, and the southern lags behind; when it is "bellows to mend" and London dinners are remembered with regret.

1860, “Introduction. The Fairy-egg, and What Came Out of It.”, in J[ohn] F[rancis] Campbell, editor, Popular Tales of the West Highlands: Orally Collected wih a Translation, volume I, Edinburgh: Edmondston and Douglas, →OCLC, page lxxxviii:

When dinner should be over, supper was to follow with scarcely any interval to speak of; and to partake of this other guests should be bidden—Svengali and Gecko, and perhaps one or two more. No ladies! For, as the unsusceptible Laird expressed it, in the language of a gillie he had once met at a servants' dance in a Highland country house, "Them wimmen spiles the ball!"

1894 March, George du Maurier, “Trilby”, in Harper’s New Monthly Magazine, volume LXXXVIII, number DXXVI, New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers, publishers, 325 to 337 Pearl Street, Franklin Square, →OCLC, part third, page 584, column 2:

[T]hough the fish run small, as indeed they all do in these small rivers, the strength of the water and the broken ground along the banks must make playing them an exciting business. Over twenty have been killed by one rod in a single day, and I should say that in most seasons some lucky man gets a bag of ten. But of course this sort of thing has to be paid for. Ten shillings a day is the charge for the river, and in addition to that there is your gillie.

1899, Stephen [Lucius] Gwynn, “Fishing and Golf in Donegal”, in Highways and Byways in Donegal and Antrim, London: Macmillan and Co., Limited; New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company, →OCLC, pages 299–300:

Courage and coolness are great qualities in a gillie, and you do not really know your man till you have been with him in a storm. […] Most gillies have cool heads and hearts of oak. They must have these qualities; to be cool and courageous is part of their job.

1994, Jeremy Paxman, Fish, Fishing and the Meaning of Life, London: Michael Joseph, →ISBN:

[H]e said, "I hae the day off tomorrow. I'll take ye out on the Anstey if ye want." This met with Patricia's ideas of what was right or fitting. Fishing on a Scottish river with a policeman as ghillie was socially acceptable to her mind.

1998, M. C. Beaton [pseudonym; Marion Chesney], chapter 1, in Death of a Scriptwriter (A Hamish Macbeth Mystery), New York, N.Y.: Mysterious Press, →ISBN:

Before we knew it, we were on a Fokker, twin engine, jet aircraft out of Copenhagen bound for Stavenger, Bergen and Trondheim, Norway, where we rested up for two days before boarding a four passenger float plane in the tiny Village of Hell. The Land Rover manned by our gilly (guide) waited where the A-Elv River joined the sea at the head of the fjord.

2010, John W. Stevens, “Atlantic Salmon from Hell and Back”, in Memorable Fish and Fishermen, [Bloomington, Ind.]: Xlibris, →ISBN:

(British, Ireland, Scotland) A fishing and hunting guide; a man or boy who attends to a person who is fishing or hunting, especially in Scotland.


shikar

en-noun

shikar (countable and uncountable, plural shikars)

From Urdu شکار / Hindi शिकार (śikār), from Persian شکار (šekâr).

Where other men took ten days to the Hills, Strickland took leave for what he called shikar, put on the disguise that appealed to him at the time, stepped down into the brown crowd, and was swallowed up for a while.

1888, Rudyard Kipling, “Miss Youghal's Sais”, in Plain Tales from the Hills, Folio Society, published 2007, page 25:

They climbed up the ladder, and he mounted shikar fashion, treading first on the sharp edge of the heel and then into the looped-up tail.

1924, EM Forster, A Passage to India, Penguin, published 2005, page 130:

(India) Hunting, sport; a hunting expedition.


battue

battue (countable and uncountable, plural battues)

From French battue, ultimately from Latin battere. Doublet of battuta, which arrived via Italian.

[page 203] In battue, whenever a hen rises, the signal "ware hen!" is called out by the sportsman or beater who is nearest it: meaning thereby "beware of the hen;" or, literally, "do not shoot the hen pheasant." In most places where game is very strictly preserved, and the rules of sporting firmly adhered to, a fine is imposed on any one who kills a hen pheasant in battue. […] [page 204] No dogs need be used in battue, but beaters only: and it should be remembered that pheasants always run to the end or side of the cover before taking flight, unless they are much pressed: consequently the best sport always comes at the extreme end of the wood.

1863, “Marksman” [pseudonym], “Finishing Lessons”, in The Dead Shot; or, Sportsman’s Complete Guide: […], New York, N.Y.: W. A. Townsend, publisher, →OCLC, pages 203 and 204:

In the southern territories of Tuva saiga antelopes were hunted successfully by the battue method, using horse as chasers, and log pens constructed before the hunt. Several dozen animals could be caught in one hunt by this method.

1980, Sevyan Vainshtein, “Appropriative Economic Forms among the Tuvinian Nomads in the Nineteenth and Early Twentieth Centuries”, in Michael Colenso, transl., edited by Caroline Humphrey, Nomads of South Siberia: The Pastoral Economies of Tuva (Cambridge Studies in Social Anthropology; 25), Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, →ISBN, page 178:

The spread of battue hunting was limited before the 1840s, and most sporting handbooks continued to instruct their readers in the arts of walking up rather than battue hunting. […] Yet the gradual spread of the battue was unmistakable, much to the consternation of more traditionally minded sportsmen. Traditionalists took exception to the extensive slaughter that the grand battue hunt might involve and railed against the introduction of this 'abominable Gallic System'.

2007, Emma Griffin, “A New Era Dawns”, in Blood Sport: Hunting in Britain since 1066, New Haven, Conn., London: Yale University Press, →ISBN, page 120:

(uncountable, hunting, often attributively) A form of hunting in which game is forced into the open by the beating of sticks on bushes, etc.

The battues have nothing whatever to do with the poaching, and once sufficiently grand battue would put an end to poaching altogether, by destroying all the game. The evil of which the chancellor should have spoken, is the excessive game preserving which allows of battues, or great massacres. The game is preserved till it swarms, and then it is slaughtered in swarms; but it is clearly not the massacre which provokes the poaching, but the temptation of the extraordinary abundance of game.

1827 May 1, “Diary for the Month of April”, in The London Magazine, volume VIII (New Series), London: Published by Hunt and Clarke, […], →OCLC, page 66:

What, in your comprehension, is a battue?—As far as I understand a battue, it is where the woods are beaten; where the game is beaten out by men instead of dogs.

1845 April 21, Sir Harry Verney (witness), “Minutes of Evidence Taken before the Select Committee on the Game Laws”, in Report from the Select Committee on the Game Laws, part I (Session 1845), [London: Ordered, by the House of Commons [of the United Kingdom], to be Printed], published 6 July 1846, →OCLC, paragraph 1202, page 59:

In the collection of game for a battue, are the Committee to understand that game is driven into the covers from the various parts of the manor?—No; it is reared and bred in the covers, generally, I believe. […] You object to a battue where 800 or 900 head of game are killed?—Yes. […] I should prefer the battue system being done away entirely.

1845 July 9, Duke of Grafton [Augustus FitzRoy, 7th Duke of Grafton] (witness), “Minutes of Evidence Taken before the Select Committee on the Game Laws”, in Report from the Select Committee on the Game Laws, part I (Session 1845), [London: Ordered, by the House of Commons [of the United Kingdom], to be Printed], published 6 July 1846, →OCLC, paragraphs 15078, 15081, and 15083, page 777:

[T]he Duke having duly conned over the eligible parties to ask, it was finally arranged that a Battue should inaugurate the Prince's visit. It required a little tact and consideration to get it up properly, for some people like battues while others don't.

1860, [Robert Smith Surtees], “Shooting and Slaughtering”, in “Plain or Ringlets?”, London: Bradbury, Agnew, & Co., […], →OCLC, page 193:

A battue is a contrivance for killing the largest quantity of game in the smallest time, with the least amount of trouble, by a small select party. […] The peculiar charm of a battue appears to lie, first, in its enormous cost, which places it out of the reach of men of moderate means; next, in the arrangements for wholesale slaughter by people who, being neither good shots nor good walkers, are unable to take advantage of the working of well-trained dogs.

1860 September 1, “The Cost of a Battue”, in Charles Dickens, editor, All the Year Round. A Weekly Journal. [...] With which is Incorporated Household Words, volume III, number 71, London: No. 26, Wellington Street [printed by C. Whiting, […]], →OCLC, page 485, column 2:

The admiration of the bear made the hunt appear as a royal performance with the bear as a revered participant. During the nineteenth century battues for large carnivores were quite frequently narrated as instructive stories about the organization of the hunt.

2017, Karin Dirke, “Changing Narratives of Human: Large Carnivore Encounters in Nineteenth-century Sweden”, in Tuomas Räsänen, Taina Syräjmaa, editors, Shared Lives of Humand and Animals: Animal Agency in the Global North, Abingdon, Oxon., New York, N.Y.: Routledge, →ISBN, page 167:

(countable, hunting) A hunt performed in this manner.


hunting knife

I had hacked at the head of one man with my hunting-knife, which was almost as big and heavy as a short sword, with such vigour, that the sharp steel had split his skull down to the eyes, and was held so fast by it that as he suddenly fell sideways the knife was twisted right out of my hand.

1886 October – 1887 January, H[enry] Rider Haggard, She: A History of Adventure, London: Longmans, Green, and Co., published 1887, →OCLC:

Among other things he found a sharp hunting knife, on the keen blade of which he immediately proceeded to cut his finger. Undaunted he continued his experiments, finding that he could hack and hew splinters of wood from the table and chairs with this new toy.

1912 October, Edgar Rice Burroughs, “Tarzan of the Apes”, in The All-Story, New York, N.Y.: Frank A. Munsey Co., →OCLC; republished as chapter 6, in Tarzan of the Apes, New York, N.Y.: A. L. Burt Company, 1914 June, →OCLC:

I had had to discard my rifle before I commenced the rapid descent of the cliff, so that now I was armed only with a hunting knife, and this I whipped from its scabbard as Kho leaped toward me.

1918 September–November, Edgar Rice Burroughs, “The Land That Time Forgot”, in The Blue Book Magazine, Chicago, Ill.: Story-press Corp., →OCLC; republished as “(please specify the chapter number)”, in Hugo Gernsback, editor, Amazing Stories, (please specify |part=I to III), New York, N.Y.: Experimenter Publishing, 1927, →OCLC:

A knife optimized for use in hunting animals, usually with a substantial belly and sometimes with a back edge that is partially serrated for sawing; fixed-blade and folding versions are both popular, and tasks such as field dressing, skinning, and bushcraft are anticipated.


deadfall

deadfall (countable and uncountable, plural deadfalls)

It [the wolverine] is so cunning as rarely to enter a deadfall itself, but will carefully pull it to pieces and then eat the bait in safety. I was informed by hunters at Selkirk Settlement that they sometimes lost the successful result of several days' trapping by a single wolverine, which, following their path, would pull down every deadfall, or destroy any animal already caught.

1859, Robert Kennicott, “The Quadrupeds of Illinois Injurious and Beneficial to the Farmer. [Wolverine, or Glutton.]”, in Report of the Commissioner of Patents for the Year 1858: Agriculture (House of Representatives, 35th Congress, 2d Session; executive document no. 105), Washington, D.C.: James B[lair] Steedman, printer, →OCLC, page 246:

The beaver trap is a deadfall of considerable weight, nicely adjusted over the animal's road or track, frequently on a dam. […] The animal passing under the deadfall has to step on a little stick raised an inch or two above the ground, and this brings down the deadfall on its back.

1876, John J. Rowan, “The Trapper”, in The Emigrant and Sportsman in Canada. […], London: Edward Stanford, […], →OCLC, page 369:

It was a week after the taking of the black fox that Skookum Bill, on a short exploring trip a few miles west of their cabin, came across a deadfall which held a dead marten. He took the marten, and, when he returned, said to Dobbs: "I didn't know you'd built any deadfalls in the timber past the big draw?"

1922 November 25, A[rthur] M[urray] Chisholm, “A Thousand a Plate”, in Western Story Magazine, volume XXX, number 4, New York, N.Y.: Street & Smith Corporation, →OCLC, chapter II, page 90, column 2:

Marten, wolverine, lynx, ermine, fox, mink, beaver, and land otter were plentiful in the general vicinity of Kijik and traps and deadfalls were set for them.

1974, Alaska Planning Group, United States Department of the Interior, “History and Archeology”, in Final Environmental Statement: Proposed Lake Clark National Park, Alaska, Washington, D.C.: United States Government Printing Office, →OCLC, part II (Description of the Environment), section A (Existing Environment), pages 61–62:

(countable, Canada, US, hunting) A kind of trap for animals, consisting of a heavy board or log that falls on to the prey.

piège assommoir

trap consisting of a heavy object that falls on to the prey


cynegetic

en-adj

cynegetic (comparative more cynegetic, superlative most cynegetic)

more cynegetic (comparative)
most cynegetic (superlative)

/ˌsɪniːˈd͡ʒɛtɪk/

PIE word
 *ḱwṓ
Borrowed from Greek κυνηγετικός (kynigetikós, “of or relating to hunting”). Κυνηγετικός (Kynigetikós) is inherited from Ancient Greek κῠνηγετῐκός (kŭnēgetĭkós), from κυνηγέτης (kunēgétēs, “hunter”) + -ῐκός (-ĭkós, suffix meaning ‘of or pertaining to’ forming adjectives); and κυνηγέτης (kunēgétēs) from κύων (kúōn, “dog”) (from Proto-Indo-European *ḱwṓ (“dog”)) + ἡγέτης (hēgétēs, “leader”) (ultimately from ἡγέομαι (hēgéomai, “to lead”), possibly from ᾰ̓́γω (ắgō, “to guide; to lead”), from Proto-Indo-European *h₂eǵ- (“to drive”) or *seh₂g- (“to seek out”)).

ref

From the collection of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, Massachusetts, U.S.A.

bor

Hail Oppian, prime of cynegetic race, / From Maro [i.e., Virgil] dovvn to him vvho ſounds the Chace: […]

1763, James Elphinston, “Book the Third”, in Education, in Four Books, London: […] P[aul] Vaillant, […]; W[illiam] Owen, […]; and J. Richardson, […], →OCLC, page 88, lines 430–431:

Give me the hippic—the philippic taste, / All else a wilderness, and man a waste; / Give me the turf, and cynegetic sport, / The zeal, the jealousy, and zest of court; […]

1836, The Tribunal of Manners, a Satyricon, London: J[ames] Ridgway and Sons, […], →OCLC, page 58:

The Roman authors, especially the cynegetic poets, have given descriptions of the different British dogs; the Scotch terrier is accurately described by Oppian; and Irish wolf dogs were brought to Rome about the fourth century.

1836 November 9, John Scouler, “Remarks on the Natural History of the Fossil Elk”, in Journal of the Geological Society of Dublin, volume I, number [III], Dublin: […] P[hilip] Dixon Hardy [for the Geological Society of Dublin], […], published 1838, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 200:

But as there are no lions, wolves, nor wild boars in Great Britain, he [the poet James Thomson] admonishes the British youth to indulge their cynegetic propensities in the fox-chase, which he describes con amore [with love].

1838, William H[amilton] Drummond, “Man’s Right to Hunting and Fishing”, in The Rights of Animals, and Man’s Obligation to Treat Them with Humanity, London: John Mardon, […]; Smallfield and Son, and Green, […]; Dublin: Hodges and Smith, →OCLC, page 36:

"Come, Diana [a dog]," said he; "come, my girl! thou whose destiny will be marked in the cynegetic annals; […] thou who art rushing into interplanetary space, and wilt perhaps be the Eve of all Selenite dogs! come, Diana, come here."

1873, Jules Verne, “Round the Moon: A Sequel to From the Earth to the Moon. Chapter III. Their Place of Shelter.”, in Louis Mercier [i.e., Lewis Page Mercier], Eleanor E[lizabeth] King, transl., From the Earth to the Moon, Direct in Ninety-seven Hours and Twenty Minutes: And a Trip Round It. […], New York, N.Y.: Scribner, Armstrong & Company, published 1874, →OCLC, page 170:

The cynegetic life is authentic because it is close to the philosophical center of human life. It constantly contrasts two central mysteries: the nature of the animal and of death. These are brought together in hunting.

1973, Paul Shepard, “Hunting as a Way of Life”, in The Tender Carnivore and the Sacred Game, New York, N.Y.: Charles Scribner’s Sons, →ISBN, page 259:

In the Sophist, Plato emphasizes the fact that hunting cannot be reduced to tracking wild animals. Among the different branches of the cynegetic art there is also an art of manhunting, which is in turn subdivided into several categories: "Let us define piracy, manstealing, tyranny, the whole military art, by one name, as hunting with violence."

2012, Grégoire Chamayou, “The Hunt for Bipedal Cattle”, in Steven Rendall, transl., Manhunts: A Philosophical History, Princeton, N.J.; Woodstock, Oxfordshire: Princeton University Press, →ISBN, page 5:

(hunting, rare) Of or relating to hunting (especially with dogs).


cynegetics

PIE word
 *ḱwṓ
From cynegetic + -s (suffix forming pluralia tantum).

affix

(hunting, obsolete) Hunting (especially with dogs).


arval

arvals (plural)
arfal (alternative)
arvel (alternative)
arvil (alternative)
arvill (alternative)
arvall (alternative)
arvel (alternative)
arvell (alternative)
averill (alternative)
arvale (alternative)

From Middle English arvell, from Old Norse erfiǫl (“a funeral feast”), from arfr (“inheritance”) + öl (“ale”). Cognate with Danish arveøl (“a wake, funeral feast”). More at erf, ale.

It was customary in the north to have an arval or funeral dinner after an interment.

1867, Memoirs of the Life of Mr. Ambrose Barnes, Late Merchant, page 65:

Only one better feast do I remember, and that was when we gave the arval for the old master when he died of the dropsy. That was a feast if you like. Such a one had never been heard of in the Valley.

2001, Christiaan Louis Leipoldt, Trevor Emslie, “Gallows Gecko”, in The Valley: a trilogy, page 204:

“Is there to be an arval dinner?” The arval was the traditional funeral feast celebrated throughout the Land Between the Lakes. It was customary to invite all who had known the deceased.

2008, Susan Wittig Albert, The Tale of Briar Bank, →ISBN:

(Scotland and Northern England, now rare) A funeral feast or wake at which bread and ale was served, traditional in Scotland, the North of England, and among the Norse.


squirrelling

(obsolete) The sport of hunting squirrels.


dead set

dead sets (plural)
dead-set (alternative)

The judge at the dog show took points off the Irish setter's dead set because its right ear twitched a few times.

(hunting) The rigid pose a hunting dog assumes when pointing out game to a hunter.


beartrap

beartraps (plural)
bear trap (alternative)

(hunting) A large trap used to catch a bear or other mammal, usually as a foot trap.


beavering

Thank'ee, Hurry; thank'ee, with all my heart--but I do a little beavering for myself as occasions offer.

1841, James Fenimore Cooper, The Deerslayer:


knobber

From knob + -er; the deer sense derives from the fact that a young buck's antlers begin diminutively as mere knobs; the fool sense derives indirectly from a reference to the penis; the two senses are ultimately cognate.

Near-synonyms: brocket, pricket, spitter

As soon as the knobber started galloping, all the other stags, who. till now, had taken but a languid interest, if any, in his movements, jumped on to their feet.

1906, Country life, volume 20, page 619:

But even she was forced to confess that nothing was astir in the mossy wilderness. She climbed to the top of Craig Dhu and had a long spy, but, except for more hinds and one small knobber, living thing there was none.

1925, John Buchan, John Macnab, page 100:

While I watched the young hind approached the knobber and, after standing by him for a moment, began to lick him

A mature stag chases a young male (a knobber) from the harem

1978 November 16, New Scientist, volume 80, number 1129, page 540:

(hunting, animal husbandry) A hart in its second year; a young male deer.


knobbler

They had begun by running a knobbler in the Shabbington coverts, but in the afternoon the sport had been better, for they had found a stag of ten in the oak wood by Stanton

1931, John Buchan, Blanket Of The Dark, page 51:

This was explained when we got up to the beasts, for they were all dead, six of them: five hinds and calves and a small knobbler. They had been struck by lightning.

(hunting, animal husbandry) Synonym of knobber (young male deer).


gamebook

(UK) A written record of the game that has been shot in a certain area (date, hunter, species, etc.).


crocket

(obsolete, hunting, dialect, British) The tips of the antlers of an adult stag.


snap shot

Oh, i thought, a mistake, a bad one, a dumb one. i shouldn't have made the snap shot. i took a few more steps, looking for possible new blood from my hasty shot—fearing the worst—and found some.

2010, Jay Cassell, Thomas McIntyre, The Best Hunting Stories Ever Told, →ISBN, page 474:

(hunting) A shot taken quickly, without time for careful aiming.


field dress

en-verb

field dress (third-person singular simple present field dresses, present participle field dressing, simple past and past participle field dressed)

field dresses (present singular third-person)
field dressing (participle present)
field dressed (participle past)
field dressed (past)

(hunting) To perform a basic gutting of a game animal, without more detailed procedures such as skinning.

потрошить

to perform a basic gutting of a game animal, without more detailed procedures such as skinning


rocketer

To see a real workman knocking down rocketer after rocketer at a height which would be considered impossible by half the men who go but shooting is to witness an exhibition of skill and correct timing which can only be attained by the most assiduous practice and the quickest of eyes.

1918, J. Arthur Gibbs, A Cotswold Village:

(hunting) A bird, especially a pheasant, which, being flushed, rises straight in the air like a rocket.


open season

en-noun

open season (countable and uncountable, plural open seasons)

"But there weren't many crabs in those days," the old man wandered on. "They were fished out, and they were great delicacies. The open season was only a month long, too."

1912, Jack London, chapter 1, in The Scarlet Plague (fiction):

(hunting, sometimes followed by on or for to designate the kind of animal hunted) A period of time during the calendar year when authorities within a jurisdiction permit the unrestricted hunting of one or more kinds of animal wildlife.


cross-shot

(hunting) A shot fired at an animal that is moving across one's field of vision.


fiants

Borrowed from French fientes, plural of fiente (“dung”).

[If] they aske him how hee calleth the ordure of an Hart, Raindeare, Gote, or fallow Deare, he shall answere that they are to be called the fewmet or fewmishings[…]Of other vermine or stinking chases, as Foxes, Badgers and such like, they are called the feance[…]

1575, Jacques du Fouilloux, translated by George Gascoigne, The Noble Art of Venerie or Hunting. […], London: […] Thomas Purfoot, published 1611, →OCLC, pages 97-98:

[Badgers] cast their fiants longer somewhat like a Fox[…]

1575, Jacques du Fouilloux, “Of the nature and properties of a Foxe and a Badgerd. Chap. 66”, in George Gascoigne, transl., The Noble Art of Venerie or Hunting. […], London: […] Thomas Purfoot, published 1611, →OCLC, page 184:

A man may know a dogge-wolfe from a bitch[…]the Bitche casteth hyr fiants commonly in the middest of an high way, whereas the dog casteth them on the one or other side of the path.

1575, Jacques du Fouilloux, “How to hunt them [wolves]. Chap. 76”, in George Gascoigne, transl., The Noble Art of Venerie or Hunting. […], London: […] Thomas Purfoot, published 1611, →OCLC, pages 215-6:

[…]a Deeres Fewmets, a Bore, or Beares Leasses, a Hare or Conneys Crottores, a Foxe or a Badgers Feance, and an Otters aintes[…]

1630, John Taylor, “The Huntsmans-SHIP; or Woodman-SHIP, with her Squadron or Regiment”, in All the vvorkes of Iohn Taylor the water-poet […] , page 93:

And these sort of Badgers where they have their Earths, use to cast their Fiants or Dung in a small hole, and cover it, whereas the Dog-Badgers make their Fiants at a good distance from their Burrows, which are deep, with variety of Chambers, Holes and Angles.

1686, Richard Blome, “Hunting, part III, chapter XI, Hunting the BADGER.”, in The gentlemans recreation, page 89:

He seldom travels above a mile or two from home, and generally to open pastures, and feeding grounds, in which the dung of the Cattle being turned over, is a sign the Badger has been there; or when heaps of moss appear collected in Cover, the fiants of the Animal being also observed.

1818, John Lawrence, British Field Sports: Embracing Practical Instructions in Shooting, Hunting, Coursing, Racing, Cocking, Fishing, &c., page 448:

(obsolete, hunting) The dung of the wolf, fox or badger.


shotproof

en-adj

shotproof (comparative more shotproof, superlative most shotproof)

more shotproof (comparative)
most shotproof (superlative)

Well, I didn't know it was that fellow, else I would have had a shot at him at once, before he had time to make himself shot-proof, but I thought it was great fun to watch him.

1886, Peter Christen Asbjørnsen, translated by H.L. Brækstad, Folk and Fairy Tales, page 73:

(hunting) Of quarry, reputedly unable to be shot.


Texas heart shot

en-noun

Texas heart shot (plural Texas heart shots)

(hunting, firearms) A bullet fired through the anal area of an animal.


tinchel

tinchels (plural)
tinchill (alternative)

From Goidelic/Scottish Gaelic timchioll (“a circuit, compass”).

der

We'll quell the savage mountaineer, / As their tinchel cows the game!

1810, Walter Scott, “(please specify the canto number or page)”, in The Lady of the Lake; […], Edinburgh: […] [James Ballantyne and Co.] for John Ballantyne and Co.; London: Longman, Hurst, Rees, and Orme, and William Miller, →OCLC, (please specify the stanza number):

(hunting, Scotland) A circle of hunters, who, by surrounding an extensive space and gradually closing in, bring a number of deer and game within closer range.


whipper-in

en-noun

whipper-in (plural whipper-ins or whippers-in)

whipper-ins (plural)
whippers-in (plural)

“[…] I shall take to hunting a pack of hounds myself after this.”
“Do, my dear, and I'll be your whipper-in. I wonder whether Mrs. Proudie would join us.”

1860 January – 1861 April, Anthony Trollope, chapter IV, in Framley Parsonage. […] (Collection of British Authors; 551), copyright edition, volume I, Leipzig: Bernhard Tauchnitz, published April 1861, →OCLC:

The other servant was an old man, who had been whipper-in to a baronet in the next county, and knew as much of the ways of wild animals as Burton did of those of his horses; […]

1871, George MacDonald, chapter X, in The Vicar's Daughter:

Now the clerk […] saw the hunting man pass, and presently saw lots more of ’em, noblemen and gentry, and then he saw the hounds, the huntsman, Jim Treadhedge, the whipper-in, and I don’t know who besides.

1894, Thomas Hardy, “Andrey Satchel and the Parson and Clerk”, in Life’s Little Ironies […], London: Osgood, McIlvaine and Co., […], →OCLC:

He heard the chaunting voices of huntsman and whippers-in; the noises of motor-cars moving slowly along the hard-rutted trackway, the old canal-bed, above the right bank of the river;

1927, Henry William Williamson, Tarka the Otter, Chapter 19:

(hunting) A huntsman who keeps the hounds from wandering, and whips them in, if necessary, to the chase.


close season

close season (countable and uncountable, plural close seasons)

close seasons (plural)
closed season (alternative)

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-close season.wav

(hunting, fishing) The time of year when hunting or fishing is not permitted.


earth-stopping

(hunting) the act of blocking a fox's earth (burrow) while it is absent, so it is forced to stay above ground.


duck call

(hunting) A hunter's technique of luring waterfowl by imitating its cry.

(hunting) A tool used to produce a whistling sound for this purpose.


cockshut

cockshut (countable and uncountable, plural cockshuts)

cockshuts (plural)
cockshoot (alternative)

From Middle English cokshote, equivalent to cock + shut.

Sir Richard Ratcliff: Thomas the Earl of Surrey, and himself,
Much about cock-shut time, from troop to troop
Went through the army, cheering up the soldiers.

1593, William Shakespeare, The Tragedy of Richard the Third', act 5, scene 3:

1 Fai.: Mistress, this is only spite:
For you would not yesternight
Kiss him in the cock-shut light.

1603, Ben Jonson, The Satyr; republished in The Works of Ben Jonson, volume 6, London: For G. and W. Nicol, et al, 1816, page 473:

(obsolete) Twilight, when poultry would be shut in for the night.


WIT

(hunting, Australia) Initialism of waterfowl identification test.


Bell shot

After Walter "Karamojo" Bell, a Scottish big game hunter.

(hunting, firearms) A shot at an animal's head taken diagonally from behind.


hit off the line

en-verb

hit off the line (third-person singular simple present hits off the line, present participle hitting off the line, simple past and past participle hit off the line)

hits off the line (present singular third-person)
hitting off the line (participle present)
hit off the line (participle past)
hit off the line (past)

Peerless, on the other hand, was worthy of her appellation, and frequently hit off the line when the others were at a loss to know which way their fox had gone across a bit of cold ploughland.

1928, Siegfried Sassoon, Memoirs of a Fox-Hunting Man, Penguin, published 2013, page 198:

(hunting) Of a hound, to pick up the scent of a quarry after a check.


call bird

A captive bird used by hunters to lure free-flying birds into a snare or trap.


in blood

If we be English deer, be then in blood:
Not rascal-like, to fall down with a pinch.

c. 1597 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The First Part of Henry the Fourth, […]”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act IV, scene ii]:

(archaic, hunting) In a state of perfect health and vigour.


slock

slock (third-person singular simple present slocks, present participle slocking, simple past and past participle slocked)

slocks (present singular third-person)
slocking (participle present)
slocked (participle past)
slocked (past)

Coined or popularized by Tim Wells, who is widely known among hunters for this style of hunting.

(intransitive, transitive) To hunt (wild game) with preindustrial tools such as spears, blowguns, slingshots, arrows, crossbows, or others.


three-pointer

...one a three-pointer, the other a seven-pointer, and the one still lying down, a spike.

1918, John B. Griffin, “A Fight with the 'Bald Faced' Bear”, in Oregon Sportsman:

(hunting) A deer or other animal whose antlers feature three points or tines.


cibolero

/ˌsiː.bəˈlɛ.ɹəʊ/

Unadapted borrowing from Spanish cibolero.

ubor

When the cibolero returned to the plain, he was received with a fresh burst of vivas, and kerchiefs were waved to greet him.

1855, Thomas Mayne Reid, chapter VIII, in The White Chief: A Legend of Northern Mexico, volume I, David Bogue, page 89:

(New Mexico, historical) A Spanish colonial (and later Mexican) buffalo hunter from New Mexico.


jacklight

en-verb

jacklight (third-person singular simple present jacklights, present participle jacklighting, simple past and past participle jacklighted or jacklit)

jacklights (present singular third-person)
jacklighting (participle present)
jacklighted (participle past)
jacklighted (past)
jacklit (participle past)
jacklit (past)

* jack + light. Probably from jack (“a male servant of any rank”), later associated with a boy servant or any boy, and later still with a knave: a rogue, thief, or deceitful man.
* Possibly also related to Spanish jaque (“a bully”).

(hunting, US, Canada) To shine a jacklight or spotlight on an animal, usually a deer, to aid in hunting at night.


big game

The proposed law will prevent big game hunters from bringing home body parts of 7,000 species including lions, rhinos, elephants and polar bears. It comes two years after the government pledged to introduce a ban.

2021 December 10, Jamie Grierson, “British big game hunters to be banned from bringing trophies home”, in The Guardian, →ISSN:


drag hunt

At the Wilkeshire Club a large number of hunters had arrived. . . . [A] splendid pack of hounds was held by the huntsman while they debated whether to hold a paper chase or to try a drag hunt.

1916, Arthur B. Reeve, chapter 12, in The Romance of Elaine:

This form of pretend hunting is called a drag hunt. For its adherents . . . it is a happy medium that gives riders the opportunity to experience hunting’s highs without taking themselves too seriously or threatening area wildlife. The fact that drag hunts are much faster only adds to the appeal.

2006 December 8, Jillian Dunham, “The Anisette Is on the Move! Release the Hounds!”, in New York Times, retrieved 2015-11-15:

Unlike a drag hunt, where the scent is laid in a straight line, trailers will be trying to mirror the zigzag path of a hunted fox.

2008 October 31, William Little, “Hunting booms three years after ban”, in Telegraph, UK, retrieved 2015-11-15:

A horseback chase which uses hounds and is similar to a fox hunt, except that the dogs do not pursue a live animal but, rather, follow a trail created by dragging a scent along a regular, predefined course which is designed to allow sustained riding at high speed.


drag hunt

drag hunt (third-person singular simple present drag hunts, present participle drag hunting, simple past and past participle drag hunted)

drag hunts (present singular third-person)
drag hunting (participle present)
drag hunted (participle past)
drag hunted (past)


draghound

draghounds (plural)
drag-hound (alternative)
drag hound (alternative)

"Pompey is the pride of the local draghounds—no very great flier, as his build will show, but a staunch hound on a scent."

1903, Arthur Conan Doyle, “The Adventure of the Missing Three-Quarter”, in The Return of Sherlock Holmes:

"I've told them, I'm ready to be the first chairman of the Badsworth draghounds," Mr Beechey said. "I'm all for riding round the countryside, and it's just as enjoyable if you're chasing artificial scent."

2003 December 27, Martin Wainwright, “This year, the day belonged to the hounds”, in Guardian, UK, retrieved 2015-11-15:

There are also another 26 packs of draghounds and bloodhounds which exist purely to hunt a runner or trail.

2015 October 31, Tim Bonner, “Ten years on, and we're still here”, in Western Daily Press, UK, retrieved 2015-11-15:

A hunting dog especially trained to be effective in drag hunts, having the highly developed sense of smell and the stamina to follow an artificially scented trail at high speed over considerable distance.


skirter

(hunting) A hound that runs wide rather than chasing the quarry.


wingshooting

(hunting) The shooting of birds in flight.


small game

Small animals and birds that are hunted and killed, either by hunters or predators.


hunting dog

Cookie lives in the suburbs and is seldom off her leash, but as a hunting dog, she's got that natural predisposition to get into the underbrush!

en:any of various domestic dogs used as aids in hunting

Any type of domestic dog that is used by humans as an aid in hunting; any individual of such a breed, especially one that does hunting work, but also any pet of such a breed.

en:wild dog named for its hunting prowess

African hunting dog
African hunting dog#English

Ellipsis of African hunting dog, a wild dog named for its hunting prowess; like all wild dogs, it hunts prey.


hart of grease

(hunting, obsolete) A hart of the season when fat.


trophy hunting

The killing of a carefully selected animal, particularly big game, under or without government license to acquire a part of the animal, such as the head or skin, as a souvenir.


funnel trap

(ornithology, hunting) A large funnel-shaped trap constructed of netting or wire mesh and intended to trap ducks, geese, etc.


camo up

camo up (third-person singular simple present camos up, present participle camoing up, simple past and past participle camoed up)

camos up (present singular third-person)
camoing up (participle present)
camoed up (participle past)
camoed up (past)

Ultimately from camouflage, of camo plus the aspect marker up.

The week prior to the Army-Navy game is anything goes at West Point. Cadets and hard-core instructors “camo up” and wear BDUs (battle dress uniforms) in preparation for the looming clash of the mighty Army black knights and the wimpy, undisciplined Navy midshipmen.

1998 December 5, “A Civil War”, in West Palm Beach Post, page 6E:

[…] No one told them anything about camo, and it takes them ten minutes to do it right.” ¶ “Well, we have five minutes and everyone has to camo-up,” the first sergeant explained patiently.

2010, Greg Hastings, “You must lead yourself first”, in Doug Crandall, editor, Leadership Lessons from West Point, page 38:

(informal, military, hunting) To put on clothing, make-up, etc. with a camouflage pattern, to wear camouflage.

The plan is to have the veterinarian “camo up,” maybe by using a hunting blind, he said, to get close enough to take a shot with a tranquilizer gun.

2009 April 4, Nick Ferraro, “Fans, police, veterinarian hope to rescue Oreo the goat”, in St. Paul Pioneer Press, Dakota County local:

(informal, military, hunting) To camouflage one's person or equipment, to hide or obscure from view.


hark-back

hark-backs (plural)
hark back (alternative)

(hunting) An act of hounds retracing a course in order to pick up the lost scent of prey.


canned hunt

Hunting animals for sport or trophies in fenced-in areas.


white hunter

Any of the professional big game hunters of European or North American backgrounds who plied their trade in Africa, especially during the first half of the 20th century.


jacklighting

A Pennsylvania man was charged with jacklighting, allegedly shining his truck headlights onto a police deer decoy.

2019 December 12, Maryland Department of Natural Resources press releasehttps://news.maryland.gov/dnr/2019/12/12/police-deer-decoy-struck-by-suspect/

(hunting, US, Canada) The action of the verb to jacklight; the act of illuminating an animal for the purpose of hunting.


gamecraft

While the woodcock and wilson's snipe are fated to disappear as civilization robs them of their restricted feeding-grounds, Bob White, if protected by the enforcement of judicious game laws, will thrive in the midst of cultivated lands, and will continue to test the gamecraft and marksmanship of future generations.

1883, Alfred Marshall Mayer, Sport with Gun and Rod in American Woods and Waters, page 669:

[…] men and women of fine physique, considerable intelligence and with a wonderful skill in gamecraft and all that pertains to obtaining the essentials of their existence — food and water.

1930, Sir Ewen MacLean, A B.M.A. Odyssey, page 40:

“Here are those trappers, lady, well trained and stout of heart, In woodcraft wise, in gamecraft wise, their lives at my behest.”

2013, Caroline A. F. Rhys Davids, Stories of the Buddha: Being Selections from the Jataka, page 171:

Skill and knowledge about hunting and managing game.


between the pegs

(hunting) Designating the body length of a killed animal based on the distance between a peg placed near its nose and another near the end of its tail.


cut for sign

cut for sign (third-person singular simple present cuts for sign, present participle cutting for sign, simple past and past participle cut for sign)

cuts for sign (present singular third-person)
cutting for sign (participle present)
cut for sign (participle past)
cut for sign (past)

(US, hunting) To track animal quarry by searching for clues and disturbances in the environment left by the quarry.


call-shy

en-adj

call-shy (comparative more call-shy, superlative most call-shy)

more call-shy (comparative)
most call-shy (superlative)

Of an animal, not responsive to imitated calls made by a hunter.


Calydonian Hunt

(Greek mythology) The Calydonian boar hunt: the process of hunting the Calydonian Boar.


hearst

Uncertain. Perhaps related to Middle English hert (“male or female deer”), whence English hart.

cog

(zoology, hunting) A hind in her second or third year.


Bambi effect

Named after the fictitious character Bambi.

(hunting) The tendency of people to object to the killing of those specific animals that are perceived as cute or adorable.


grindadrap

A traditional Faroese hunting technique, by which whales and dolphins are herded into shallow bays to be beached, killed, and butchered.


limit out

en-verb

limit out (third-person singular simple present limits out, present participle limiting out, simple past and past participle limited out)

limits out (present singular third-person)
limiting out (participle present)
limited out (participle past)
limited out (past)

(intransitive, hunting) To attempt to hunt a large, perhaps unreasonable, amount of game in a single season.


jucking time

/ˈdʒʌkɪŋ ˌtaɪm/

First attested in 1681 as juking-time. From juke, juck (“to crow”), of onomatopoeic origin, but probably also influenced by jug, jouk (“to perch, of partridges”). Compare chuck.

Another method of discovering them is, by going to their haunts very early in the morning, or at the close of the evening, which is called the jucking-time.

1795, Encyclopædia Britannica, page 792:

[…] some are so ingenious they can do it by the Eye, only distinguishing their colour from the Earth; others by a Call, imitating their Notes at their Juking-time, which is usually in the Morning and in the Evening.

1681, John Worlidge, Systema Agriculturae, page 249:

There is another way to discover them, and that is by going to their haunts early in the morning, or the close of the evening, which is called the juking time, and there listen for the call of the cock partridge […]

1821, Alexander Mackintosh, The Modern Fisher, or Driffield Angler, page 188:

Early morning or late evening, when partridges crow.

The season of imitating crows to lure partridges out at such a time.