hunting

Etymology 1

From Middle English hunting, from Old English huntung, equivalent to hunt + -ing.

noun

1. The act of finding and killing a wild animal, either for sport or with the intention of using its parts to make food, clothes, etc.
   His pictures of huntings are particularly admired: the figures and animals of every species being designed with uncommon spirit, nature, and truth. 1797, Encyclopædia Britannica
2. Looking for something, especially for a job or flat.
3. (engineering) Fluctuating around a central value without stabilizing.
   Bogie hunting is not caused by some sort of periodic disturbance but by dynamic instability; the oscillatory system is not the bogies alone but the complete assembly of bogie-plus-body; and variations in track rigidity do not affect the nature of the motion, only its intensity. 1961 March, “Talking of trains”, in Trains Illustrated, page 136
4. (telephony) The process of determining which of a group of telephone lines will receive a call.

Etymology 2

From Middle English huntynge, alteration of earlier Middle English huntinde, huntende, huntand, present participle of hunten (“to hunt”), equivalent to hunt + -ing.

verb

1. present participle and gerund of hunt
   Even in an era when individuality in dress is a cult, his clothes were noticeable. He was wearing a hard hat of the low round kind favoured by hunting men, and with it a black duffle-coat lined with white. 1963, Margery Allingham, chapter 6, in The China Governess