PURSUIT • FREE TRANSLATOR.ORG • Definition of Pursuit

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/pərsˈut/ Listen

noun

Pursuit n.

The act of following or going after; esp., a following with haste, either for sport or in hostility; chase; prosecution; as, the pursuit of game; the pursuit of an enemy. "Weak we are, and can not shun pursuit."

A following with a view to reach, accomplish, or obtain; endeavor to attain to or gain; as, the pursuit of knowledge; the pursuit of happiness or pleasure.

Course of business or occupation; continued employment with a view to same end; as, mercantile pursuits; a literary pursuit.

(Law) Prosecution. (Obs.) "That pursuit for tithes ought, and of ancient time did pertain to the spiritual court."

Curve of pursuit (Geom.), a curve described by a point which is at each instant moving towards a second point, which is itself moving according to some specified law.

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Etymology of 'Pursuit'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Pursuit" Quotes from Famous Books

... accurately by moonlight, that they were upset by the sudden and unexpected manner of my advent, and that I was a rather rapidly moving target saved me from the various deadly projectiles of the enemy and permitted me to reach the shadows of the surrounding peaks before an orderly pursuit ...

— A Princess of Mars • Edgar Rice Burroughs

... that they are rooted in the emulous passion, yet they are the chief means of training in fairness and magnanimity. Can the teacher afford to throw such an ally away? Ought we seriously to hope that marks, distinctions, prizes, and other goals of effort, based on the pursuit of recognized superiority, should be forever banished from our schools? As a psychologist, obliged to notice the deep and pervasive character of the emulous passion, I must confess ...

— Talks To Teachers On Psychology; And To Students On Some Of Life's Ideals • William James

... missing couple in the town he made his way to the nearest station, where he found that a man and woman answering to his description had left by train for Liverpool four hours before. Learoyd, his heart raging with fury and wounded pride, followed in pursuit. He arrived at Liverpool in the early hours of the next morning, and, making his way to the docks, discovered that the fugitives had sailed at midnight for America. Further pursuit was impossible. He returned home, and late that same evening was found lying dead drunk on the road-side ...

— More Tales of the Ridings • Frederic Moorman

... they all set out on a grand beetle-hunting expedition, and so intent were they upon this fascinating pursuit that they did not note the flight of time, till suddenly Mildred, pulling out her watch, gave a pretty ...

— Dawn • H. Rider Haggard

... recall cases in literature... Yes, he had got so far as to envisage the possibility of overwhelming passion... Then all these speculations disconcertingly vanished, and Hilda presented herself to his mind as a girl intensely religious, who would shrink from no unconventionality in the pursuit of truth. He did not much care for this theory of Hilda, nor did it ...

— Clayhanger • Arnold Bennett

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