pursuit

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

1. n. The act or an instance of chasing or pursuing.
2. n. The act of striving: the pursuit of higher education.
3. n. An activity, such as a vocation or hobby, engaged in regularly.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

1. n. The act of pursuing, or of following briskly for the purpose of overtaking; a following hastily, either for sport or in hostility; the chase, or a chasing: as, the pursuit of game, or of an enemy.
2. n. The act of following with a view to reach, accomplish, or obtain; the endeavor to attain to or gain: as, the pursuit of happiness.
3. n. The object of one's endeavors or continued exertions or application; that which one systematically engages in or follows as a recreation, occupation, profession, or trade, or with some similar end in view; course of occupation or employment: as, literary pursuits; mercantile pursuits.
4. n. A following up or out; a carrying out; prosecution: as, the pursuit of a design.
5. n. Persecution.
6. n. Pursuit, Pursuance. Pursuit is free in either physical or moral uses: as, the pursuit of a tiger, a profession, an ambition. Pursuance is not now used except in the moral sense, and then generally in the sense of following out: as, pursuance of his original intention; in pursuance of a peculiar theory. We speak of the pursuit of pleasure.
7. n. Calling, Employment, etc. See occupation.

Wiktionary

1. n. The act of pursuing.
2. n. A hobby or recreational activity, done regularly.
3. n. cycling A discipline in track cycling where two opposing teams start on opposite sides of the track and try to catch their opponents.

GNU Webster's 1913

1. n. The act of following or going after; esp., a following with haste, either for sport or in hostility; chase; prosecution.
2. n. A following with a view to reach, accomplish, or obtain; endeavor to attain to or gain
3. n. Course of business or occupation; continued employment with a view to same end
4. n. (Law), obsolete Prosecution.

WordNet 3.0

1. n. a diversion that occupies one's time and thoughts (usually pleasantly)
2. n. a search for an alternative that meets cognitive criteria
3. n. an auxiliary activity
4. n. the act of pursuing in an effort to overtake or capture