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s a shortened form of the preposition an (which was used before the vowel sound); as in a hunting, a building, a begging. "Jacob, when he was a dying" Heb. xi. 21. "We'll a birding together." " It was a doing." Shak. "He burst out a laughing." Macaulay. The hyphen may be used to connect a with the verbal substantive (a…

The use of the bow and arrows in battle, hunting, etc.; the art, practice, or skill of shooting with a bow and arrows.

A small hound, or hunting dog, twelve to fifteen inches high, used in hunting hares and other small game. See Illustration in Appendix.

A hound for baiting or hunting bears. Car

To scour or range over in hunting, accompanied with the noise made by striking bushes, etc., for the purpose of rousing game. To beat the woods, and rouse the bounding prey. Prior.

A person who beats up game for the hunters. Black.

Hunting for, or taking, birds' nests or their contents.

scares another; specifically, a person stationed to prevent the escape of the deer, at a hunt. See Blancher. [Obs.]

To give (hounds or soldiers) a first taste or sight of blood, as in hunting or war. It was most important too that his troops should be blooded. Macaulay.

uteness of smell. It is employed to recover game or prey which has escaped wounded from a hunter, and for tracking criminals. Formerly it was used for pursuing runaway slaves. Other varieties of dog are often used for the same purpose and go by the same name. The Cuban bloodhound is said to be a variety of the mastiff.…

ut or humble cot, esp. a rude hut or barrack for unmarried farm servants; a shepherd's or hunter's hut; a booth. [Scot.]

rong blade from ten to fifteen inches long, and double-edged near the point; -- used as a hunting knife, and formerly as a weapon in the southwestern part of the United States. It was named from its inventor, Colonel James Bowie. Also, by extension, any large sheath knife.

ling; unintelligent. O, let all provocation Take every brutish shape it can devise. Leigh Hunt. Man may . . . render himself brutish, but it is in vain that he would seek to take the rank and density of the brute. I. Taylor.

Intense excitement at the sight of deer or other game, such as often unnerves a novice in hunting. [Colloq.]

A hound for hunting deer. Master of the buckhounds, an officer in the royal household. [Eng.]

A coarse leaden shot, larger than swan shot, used in hunting deer and large game.

A horn used by hunters.

f thunder; a burst of applause; a burst of passion; a burst of inspiration. Bursts of fox-hunting melody. W. Irving.

thing in a round-about manner, instead of coming directly to it; -- a metaphor taken from hunting. -- Bush bean (Bot.), a variety of bean which is low and requires no support (Phaseolus vulgaris, variety nanus). See Bean, 1. -- Bush buck, or Bush goat (Zoöl.), a beautiful South African antelope (Tragelaphus sylvaticu…

omed to beat about, or travel through, bushes. [U.S.] They were gallant bushwhackers, and hunters of raccoons by moonlight. W. Irving.