hunting-groundn.
a. A district or tract of country adapted for hunting, or in which hunting is practised.
ΘΚΠ
the world > food and drink > hunting > hunting area > [noun]
fieldOE
forest1297
seta1425
chasea1440
hunting-fieldc1680
hunting-ground1721
flying county1856
hunt1857
moor1860
the Shires1860
driving moor1873
beat1875
killing ground1877
flying country1883
killing field1915
1721 Jrnls. Ho. Repr. Mass. 3 20 Constantly scouting, hunting and discovering the Rivers, Ponds, Carrying-places and Hunting-grounds.
1750 G. Croghan Jrnl. (1904) 55 The Twightwees..have sent word to the French that if they can find any of their People..on their hunting Ground, that they will make them Prisoners.
1777 W. Robertson Hist. Amer. (1783) II. 61 Tribes seated on..hunting-grounds abounding so much with game, that they have a regular and plentiful supply of nourishment with little labour.
1837 W. Irving Adventures Capt. Bonneville II. 18 All the fastnesses, defiles, and favourable hunting grounds of the country.
1874 J. R. Green Short Hist. Eng. People ii. §4. 72 Thousands of Hampshire peasants were driven from their homes to make him a hunting-ground.
b. figurative. A place (book, etc.) made the scene of any kind of hunt or search, or containing a supply of something for which one hunts.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > attention and judgement > enquiry > investigation, inspection > [noun] > place of search
hunting-ground1877
1877 C. Schreiber Jrnl. 22 Mar. (1911) II. 6 Our favourite hunting-ground, Holland, appeared particularly fruitful.
1880 Academy 21 Aug. 133/3 The Moyen de Parvenir was a favourite hunting-ground of the author of Tristram Shandy.
1888 Daily News 15 Sept. 2/5 The hunting ground of pickpockets.
Phrases
happy hunting-ground(s): those expected by the American Indians in the world to come; hence, the future state; (also figurative) a favourable place for hunting, collecting, or making acquisitions.
ΘΚΠ
the world > the supernatural > deity > heaven > [noun] > future state
other worldOE
worldOE
everlastingnessa1382
futurity1741
other sidea1822
happy hunting-ground(s)1826
Silent Land1826
1826 J. F. Cooper Last of Mohicans II. xvi. 288 A young man has gone to the happy hunting grounds!
1827 J. F. Cooper Prairie II. xii. 192 Court-houses are the ‘happy hunting-grounds’, as a Red-skin would say, for them that are born with gifts no better than such as lie in the tongue.
1836 W. Irving Astoria (1849) 249 They will see the happy hunting-grounds, with the souls of the brave and good living in tents in green meadows.
1890 A. C. Gunter Miss Nobody v That he may send them to the happy hunting grounds also.
1894 J. N. Maskelyne ‘Sharps & Flats’ i. 6 At the present moment England is the happy hunting-ground of the swindling fraternity.
1938 D. Du Maurier Rebecca ii. 13 My faithful Jasper has gone to the happy hunting grounds.
1972 Nature 17 Mar. 98/1 The effect of liquid sodium on other metals has been a particularly happy hunting ground for chemists.
This entry has not yet been fully updated (first published 1899; most recently modified version published online June 2019).
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n.1721