hunt down

phrasal verb

hunted down; hunting down; hunts down
1
: to succeed in finding (something)
It may take me a while to hunt down the phone number.
2
: to find and capture (someone)
The killer was hunted down with help from his relatives.

Examples of hunt down in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web
Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
After making the inevitably fatal decision to cover up the accident, the group is later hunted down by The Fisherman and calls upon the help of survivors Ray (Prinze) and Julie (Hewitt) as pseudo-mentors. Mia Galuppo, HollywoodReporter, 17 July 2025 That blue shell, which hunts down whoever is in first place and punishes them for winning, is nowhere to be found. Luke Winkie, Vulture, 18 June 2025 Set in Dublin, the film is about a local detective who works with a British profiler to hunt down what appears to be a serial killer. Andreas Wiseman, Deadline, 3 July 2025 Historians have said the use of soldiers to enforce the Fugitive Slave Act — which saw escaped slaves hunted down and returned to the South — helped spark the Civil War. Sonja Sharp, Los Angeles Times, 28 June 2025 See All Example Sentences for hunt down

Browse Nearby Words

Cite this Entry

“Hunt down.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/hunt%20down. Accessed 24 Jul. 2025.

Last Updated: - Updated example sentences
Love words? Need even more definitions?

Subscribe to America's largest dictionary and get thousands more definitions and advanced search—ad free!