What's the difference between
and
Enter two words to compare and contrast their definitions, origins, and synonyms to better understand how those words are related.

Hunt vs Forage - What's the difference?

hunt | forage |

As verbs the difference between hunt and forage

is that hunt is to chase down prey and (usually) kill it while forage is to search for and gather food for animals, particularly cattle and horses.

As nouns the difference between hunt and forage

is that hunt is the act of hunting while forage is fodder for animals, especially cattle and horses.

As a proper noun Hunt

is {{surname|A=An English occupational|lang=en|from=occupations}} for a hunter (for game, birds etc).

hunt

English

Verb

(en verb)
  • To chase down prey and (usually) kill it.
  • * Bible, Genesis xxvii. 5
    • Esau went to the field to hunt for venison.
  • * Tennyson
    • Like a dog, he hunts in dreams.
  • * 2010 , Backyard deer hunting: converting deer to dinner for pennies per pound (ISBN 1449084354), page 10:
    • State Wildlife Management Areas often offer licensed hunters the opportunity to hunt deer on public lands.
  • To try to find something; search.
  • * (William Shakespeare)
    • He after honour hunts , I after love.
  • * , chapter=1
    • , title= Mr. Pratt's Patients, chapter=1 , passage=I stumbled along through the young pines and huckleberry bushes. Pretty soon I struck into a sort of path that, I cal'lated, might lead to the road I was hunting for. It twisted and turned, and, the first thing I knew, made a sudden bend around a bunch of bayberry scrub and opened out into a big clear space like a lawn.}}
  • * 2004 , Prill Boyle, Defying Gravity: A Celebration of Late-Blooming Women (ISBN 1578601541), page 119:
    • My idea of retirement was to hunt seashells, play golf, and do a lot of walking.
  • * 2011 , Ann Major, Nobody's Child (ISBN 1459271939):
    • What kind of woman came to an island and stayed there through a violent storm and then got up the next morning to hunt seashells? She had fine, delicate features with high cheekbones and the greenest eyes he'd ever seen.
    The police are hunting for evidence.
  • To drive; to chase; with down'', ''from'', ''away , etc.
    • to hunt down a criminal
    He was hunted from the parish.
  • To use or manage (dogs, horses, etc.) in hunting.
  • * Addison
    • He hunts a pack of dogs.
  • To use or traverse in pursuit of game.
    • He hunts the woods, or the country.

    Derived terms

    * hunt where the ducks are * that dog won't hunt

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • The act of hunting.
  • A hunting expedition.
  • An organization devoted to hunting, or the people belonging to such an organization (capitalized if the name of a specific organization).

    • Derived terms

    * treasure hunt

    forage

    English

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • Fodder for animals, especially cattle and horses.
  • * 1819 , :
    • “The hermit was apparently somewhat moved to compassion by the anxiety as well as address which the stranger displayed in tending his horse; for, muttering something about provender left for the keeper's palfrey, he dragged out of a recess a bundle of forage , which he spread before the knight's charger.
    (Dryden)
  • An act or instance of foraging.
  • * Shakespeare
    • He [the lion] from forage will incline to play.
  • * Marshall
    • Mawhood completed his forage unmolested.
  • * 1860 September, “A Chapter on Rats”, in , volume 56, number 3, page 304:
    • ‘My dears,’ he discourses to them — how he licks his gums, long toothless, as he speaks of his forages into the well-stored cellars:
  • (obsolete) The demand for fodder etc by an army from the local population

    • Verb

    (forag)
  • To search for and gather food for animals, particularly cattle and horses.
  • * 1841 , , The Deerslayer , Chapter 8:
    • The message said that the party intended to hunt and forage through this region, for a month or two, afore it went back into the Canadas.
  • To rampage through, gathering and destroying as one goes.
  • * 1599 , , Henry V , Act 1, Scene 2:
    • And your great-uncle's, Edward the Black Prince, / Who on the French ground play'd a tragedy, / Making defeat on the full power of France, / Whiles his most mighty father on a hill / Stood smiling to behold his lion's whelp / Forage in blood of French nobility.
  • To rummage.
  • * 1898 , , The Wrecker :
    • Using the blankets for a basket, we sent up the books, instruments, and clothes to swell our growing midden on the deck; and then Nares, going on hands and knees, began to forage underneath the bed.

    Derived terms

    * forager