hunch
Etymology
This text is extracted from the Wiktionary and it is available under the CC BY-SA 3.0 license | Terms and conditions | Privacy policy 0.002
Etymology
Assibilated variant of hunk, of uncertain origin.
Alternatively, a derivative of hump, via an earlier Middle English *hunche, *humpchin, from + -chen, equivalent to hump + -kin.
Pronunciation- IPA: /hʌnt͡ʃ/, /hʌnʃ/
hunch (plural hunches)
- A hump; a protuberance.
- A stooped or curled posture; a slouch.
- The old man walked with a hunch.
- A theory, idea, or guess; an intuitive impression that something will happen.
- I have a hunch they'll find a way to solve the problem.
- A hunk; a lump; a thick piece.
- a hunch of bread
- 1925 July – 1926 May, A[rthur] Conan Doyle, “(please specify the chapter number)”, in The Land of Mist (eBook no. 0601351h.html), Australia: Project Gutenberg Australia, published April 2019:
- "The greedy little bastards! They had a 'unch of bread each when I 'ad my dinner."
- A push or thrust, as with the elbow.
- French: bosse
- German: Hügel, Protuberanz, Buckel
- Italian: gibbo
- Portuguese: corcunda, corcova, protuberância
- German: gekrümmte Haltung, krummer Rücken
- French: intuition, pressentiment
- German: Ahnung, Gefühl
- Italian: intuizione, presentimento
- Portuguese: palpite, pressentimento, intuição
- Russian: иде́я
- Spanish: corazonada, pálpito, intuición
- German: dickes Stück
hunch (hunches, present participle hunching; simple past and past participle hunched)
- (intransitive) To bend the top of one's body forward while raising one's shoulders.
- Synonyms: slouch, stoop, lean
- Don't hunch over your computer if you want to avoid neck problems.
- (transitive) To raise (one's shoulders) (while lowering one's head or bending the top of one's body forward); to curve (one's body) forward (sometimes followed by up).
- They stood outside the door hunching themselves against the rain and puffing on their cigarettes.
- He hunched up his shoulders and stared down at the ground.
- 1924, Ford Madox Ford, Some Do Not ..., New York: Grosset & Dunlap, Part 2, Chapter 2:
- If you hunch your shoulders too long against a storm your shoulders will grow bowed....
- 1938, Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings, New York: Scribner, Chapter 17,
- He would hunch his twisted body close and put out his gentle and crooked hand and touch the fawn.
- 1939, John Steinbeck, chapter 10, in The Grapes of Wrath, New York: Viking, published 1958, page 142:
- They sat looking out at the dark, at the square of light the kitchen lantern threw on the ground outside the door, with a hunched shadow of Grampa in the middle of it.
- (intransitive) To walk (somewhere) while hunching one's shoulders.
- Synonyms: slouch
- 1969, Ray Bradbury, “The Inspired Chicken Motel”, in I Sing the Body Electric, New York: Knopf, page 57:
- […] once we had hunched in out of the sun and slunk through a cold pork-and-beans-on-bread lunch […] my brother and I found a desert creek nearby and heaved rocks at each other to cool off.
- 1983, Jack Vance, Suldrun's Garden, Spatterlight Press, 2012, Chapter 18,
- […] wheezing and grunting he hunched across the room.
- (transitive) To thrust a hump or protuberance out of (something); to crook, as the back.
- (transitive) To push or jostle with the elbow; to push or thrust against (someone).
- Synonyms: elbow, nudge
- 1899, Sutton E. Griggs, chapter 6, in Imperium in Imperio:
- He let his eyes scan the faces of all the white teachers, male and female, but would end up with a stare at the colored man sitting there. Finally, he hunched his seat-mate with his elbow and asked what man that was.
- 1974, Maya Angelou, chapter 12, in Gather Together in My Name, New York: Bantam, published 1975, page 40:
- She hunched me and winked.
- (intransitive, colloquial) To have a hunch, or make an intuitive guess.
- French: se voûter
- Portuguese: curvar
- Russian: суту́литься
This text is extracted from the Wiktionary and it is available under the CC BY-SA 3.0 license | Terms and conditions | Privacy policy 0.002
