pursuit

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

• noun The act or an instance of chasing or pursuing.
• noun The act of striving to gain or accomplish something.
• noun An activity, such as a vocation or hobby, engaged in regularly.

from The Century Dictionary.

• noun 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.
• noun The act of following with a view to reach, accomplish, or obtain; the endeavor to attain to or gain: as, the pursuit of happiness.
• noun 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.
• noun A following up or out; a carrying out; prosecution: as, the pursuit of a design.
• noun Persecution.
• noun 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.
• noun Calling, Employment, etc. See occupation.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

• noun The act of following or going after; esp., a following with haste, either for sport or in hostility; chase; prosecution
• noun A following with a view to reach, accomplish, or obtain; endeavor to attain to or gain
• noun Course of business or occupation; continued employment with a view to same end
• noun (Law), obsolete Prosecution.
• noun (Geom.) a curve described by a point which is at each instant moving towards a second point, which is itself moving according to some specified law.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

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

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

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