Other forms: manhunts
A manhunt is an organised search for a wanted person. A nationwide manhunt, launch a manhunt, the manhunt ended.
It is the standard word in police reporting for a large coordinated search, usually for somebody dangerous and usually with a time pressure attached. It implies scale — a few officers looking is a search and a hundred is a manhunt. Note that the compound is transparent, man plus hunt, and that its unpleasant literal reading is exactly the point: the person is being hunted.
1nounmanhuntAn organised search for a wanted person.
“Police launched a manhunt after the prisoner escaped from jail.”
manhunt is an organised search.
Man plus hunt, a plain English compound of the nineteenth century. Both halves are Old English, which is unusual for a term that sounds so modern.
From man + hunt.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA