pursued

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pur·sue

(pər-so͞o′)

v. pur·sued, pur·su·ing, pur·sues

v.tr.

1. To follow in an effort to overtake or capture; chase: a fox that was pursued by hounds.

2. To strive to gain or accomplish: pursue lofty political goals.

3. To proceed along the course of; follow: a ship that pursued the southern course.

a. To carry further; advance: Let's not pursue this argument.

b. To take action regarding (something), especially with the intention of sustained effort: a detective who pursued each lead.

c. To engage in (a vocation or hobby, for example); practice.

5. To try to have a romantic relationship with: a lady who was pursued by many suitors.

6. To continue to torment or afflict; haunt: was pursued by the demons of lust and greed.

v.intr.

1. To follow in an effort to overtake or capture; chase.

2. To take action regarding something or carry on an established activity or project.

[Middle English purseuen, pursuen, from Anglo-Norman purseure, pursure, from Vulgar Latin *prōsequere, from Latin prōsequī; see prosecute.]

pur·su′a·ble adj.

pur·su′er n.

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

ThesaurusAntonymsRelated WordsSynonymsLegend:

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Noun	1.	pursued - a person who is being chased; "the film jumped back and forth from the pursuer to the pursued" chased hunted person - a person who is hunted
Adj.	1.	pursued - followed with enmity as if to harm; "running and leaping like a herd of pursued antelopes"

References in classic literature ?

At times, when closely pursued, he will disgorge what are supposed to be the detached arms of the squid; some of them thus exhibited exceeding twenty and thirty feet in length.

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These thoughts supported my spirits, while I pursued my undertaking with unremitting ardour.

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I dissuaded him a little, but saw there was no remedy; so he ran rashly upon it, slipped out a square of the sash window dexterously enough, and without noise, and got out four pieces of the silks, and came with them towards me, but was immediately pursued with a terrible clutter and noise.

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'And where,' pursued Miss Peecher, complacent in her little transparent fiction of conducting the examination in a semiofficial manner for Mary Anne's benefit, not her own, 'where does this young woman, who is called but not named Lizzie, live?

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Singlehanded, I could not have pursued better tactics, for the red men, convinced by sudden surprise that not less than a regiment of regulars was upon them, turned and fled in every direction for their bows, arrows, and rifles.

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The prospect of it frightened her so thoroughly, that, with a mixture of true girlish perverseness and folly, she resolved on getting out of the house and proceeding directly by the stage to her friends, the Clarkes; and had really got as far as the length of two streets in her journey when she was fortunately missed, pursued, and overtaken.

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One army fled and the other pursued. Beyond Smolensk there were several different roads available for the French, and one would have thought that during their stay of four days they might have learned where the enemy was, might have arranged some more advantageous plan and undertaken something new.

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and ENE., so that we were a long while upon our voyage, and we were but ill provided with victuals for so long a run; and what was still worse, there was some danger that those English and Dutch ships whose boats pursued us, whereof some were bound that way, might have got in before us, and if not, some other ship bound to China might have information of us from them, and pursue us with the same vigour.

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I immediately pursued the Indians, with only eight men, and on the sixteenth overtook them, killed two of the party, and recovered the girls.

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I saw the water streaming over the road towards the ditch, and it reminded me of Uncle Tom's Cabin at Milltown, when Eliza took her baby and ran across the Mississippi on the ice blocks, pursued by the bloodhounds.

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"Oh!" exclaimed Athos, "here it is, as clear as day; pursued as he was, D'Artagnan would not have tarried here five minutes had he been pressed very closely, which gives us hopes that he may have succeeded in escaping."

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She pursued him with attentions, and when his passion was dormant sought to excite it, for then at least she had the illusion of holding him.