haunch
Pronunciation
  • (RP) IPA: /hɔːntʃ/, /hɒntʃ/
  • (some accents) IPA: /hɑːntʃ/
  • (America) IPA: /hɔntʃ/, /hɑntʃ/
Noun

haunch (plural haunches)

  1. (anatomy) The area encompassing the upper thigh, hip and buttocks on one side of a human, primate, or quadruped animal, especially one that can sit on its hindquarters.
    • 1726 October 27, [Jonathan Swift], chapter II, in Travels into Several Remote Nations of the World. In Four Parts. […] [Gulliver’s Travels], volume II, London: Printed for Benj[amin] Motte, […], OCLC 995220039 ↗, part IV (A Voyage to the Houyhnhnms):
      But I had no time to pursue these reflections; for the gray horse came to the door, and made me a sign to follow him into the third room where I saw a very comely mare, together with a colt and foal, sitting on their haunches upon mats of straw, not unartfully made, and perfectly neat and clean.
    • 1855 — Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, The Song of Hiawatha, III
      And the rabbit from his path-way
      Leaped aside, and at a distance
      Sat erect upon his haunches.
    • 1916 — Wilfred Owen, The Wrestlers
      While Heracles, - the thews and cordage of his thighs
      Straitened and strained beyond the utmost stretch
      From quivering heel to haunch like sweating hawsers.
    • c.1918 — Carl Sandburg, Fog
      The fog comes on little cat feet.
      It sits looking over harbor and city
      on silent haunches and then moves on.
  2. The loin and leg of a quadruped, especially when used as food.
    • 1895 November, Rudyard Kipling, “The Law of the Jungle”, in The Second Jungle Book, London; New York, N.Y.: Macmillan and Co., OCLC 929793067 ↗, page 25 ↗:
      Now these are the Laws of the Jungle, and many and mighty are they; / But the head and the hoof of the Law and the haunch and the hump is—Obey!
    • 18?? — John Greenleaf Whittier, The Garrison of Cape Ann
      On the rough-hewn oaken table the venison haunch was shared.
  3. (architecture) A squat vertical support structure.
  4. (dialect) A jerked underhand throw.
Translations
  • Russian: ля́жка
Translations Verb

haunch (haunches, present participle haunching; past and past participle haunched)

  1. (transitive, architecture) To provide with a haunch or supporting structure.
  2. (transitive, dialect) To throw with an underhand movement.



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