From Longman Dictionary of Contemporary Englishhunt somebody/something ↔ out phrasal verb1 LOOK FORto search for someone or something in order to catch, kill, or destroy them The plane was on a mission to hunt out enemy submarines.2 LOOK FORto search for and find something that you need or want, but that is difficult to find In the school library, he hunted out books on politics. → hunt→ See Verb table
Examples from the Corpus
hunt out• Louis has some fine barbecue places, but you have to hunt them out.• But she would have fallen off anyway once the hunt started out in earnest.• Hunting fraternity turns out in force Boxing Day is when the hunting fraternity turns out in force.• The hunt take out much younger people, pony clubbers of six or seven years old.• Illegal trophy hunting ran out of control and 80 per cent of the Serengeti's elephants died.• Many said the hunt was out of the ordinary. 