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.

• IPA: /hʌnt͡ʃ/, /hʌnʃ/

hunch (plural hunches)

1. A hump; a protuberance.
2. A stooped or curled posture; a slouch.

   The old man walked with a hunch.

3. 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.

4. 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."

5. A push or thrust, as with the elbow.

• (guess) hint, clue, inkling

• 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)

1. (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.

2. (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.

3. (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.

4. (transitive) To thrust a hump or protuberance out of (something); to crook, as the back.
5. (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.

6. (intransitive, colloquial) To have a hunch, or make an intuitive guess.

• French: se voûter
• Portuguese: curvar
• Russian: суту́литься