head-hunting

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noun

(among certain primitive peoples) the practice of hunting down and decapitating victims and preserving their heads as trophies.

the act or practice of actively searching for new employees, especially for professionals or executives: Every June the electronics manufacturers go headhunting among the newly graduated engineers.

the act or practice of firing without cause, especially someone disliked: Their periodic headhunting was a contributing factor in the company's failures.

the act or practice of trying to destroy the power, position, or influence of one's competitors or foes: Headhunting is ferocious in advertising.

Origin:
1850–55; head + hunting

Relevant Questions

What Is Head·hunt?

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Head-hunting is always a great word to know.

So is bezoar. Does it mean:

a screen or mat covered with a dark material for shielding a camera lens from excess light or glare.

a calculus or concretion found in the stomach or intestines of certain animals, esp. ruminants, formerly reputed to be an effective remedy for poison.

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Dictionary.com Unabridged

noun

a headhunting expedition: The men left the village to go on a headhunt.

verb (used without object)

to engage in headhunting.

Origin:
head + hunt

Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2013.
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Link To head-hunting

Collins

World English Dictionary

head-hunting

—n
1.	the practice among certain peoples of removing the heads of slain enemies and preserving them as trophies
2.	the recruitment, esp through an agency, of executives from one company to another, often rival, company
3.	slang (US) the destruction or neutralization of political opponents

'head-hunter

—n

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 10th Edition
2009 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009
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Matching Quote

"The Indian said that he had got his money by hunting, mostly high up the West Branch of the Penobscot, and toward the head of the St. John; he had hunted there from a boy, and knew all about that region. His game had been beaver, otter, black cat (or fisher), sable, moose, etc. Loup-cervier (or Canada lynx) were plenty yet in burnt grounds. For food in the woods, he uses partridges, ducks, dried moose-meat, hedgehog, etc. Loons, too, were good, only "bile 'em good." He told us at some length how he had suffered from starvation when a mere lad, being overtaken by winter when hunting with two grown Indians in the northern part of Maine, and obliged to leave their canoe on account of ice."

-Henry David Thoreau

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