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hunch

noun
/hʌnt͡ʃ/

Etymology

Assibilated variant of hunk, of uncertain origin. Alternatively, a derivative of hump, via an earlier Middle English *hunche, *humpchin, from *hump + -chin, -chen (diminutive suffix), equivalent to hump + -kin. In the sense of an intuitive impression, said to be from the old gambling superstition that it brings luck to touch the hump of a hunchback.

  1. derived from *kewb-✻
  2. derived from *kumb-✻
  3. derived from *humpaz✻
  4. derived from *hump✻
  5. borrowed from hump — “heap, hill, stump”
  6. borrowed from homp — “hump, lump”
  7. formed as hunch — “hump + -kin”

Definitions

  1. A hump

    A hump; a protuberance.

  2. A stooped or curled posture

    A stooped or curled posture; a slouch.

    • The old man walked with a hunch.

  3. A theory, idea, or guess

    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. ›+ 8 more definitions

    1. A hunk

      A hunk; a lump; a thick piece.

      • a hunch of bread
      • "The greedy little bastards! They had a 'unch of bread each when I 'ad my dinner."

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

    3. To bend the top of one's body forward while raising one's shoulders.

      • Don't hunch over your computer if you want to avoid neck problems.
      • Sandy, you will never get anywhere by hunching over your putter, hold your shoulders back and bend from the waist.
      • She rolled over and hunched into a fetal position.

    4. To raise (one's shoulders) (while lowering one's head or bending the top of one's body…

      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.
      • Danc[ing] Mast[er]. […] not too fast […] keep you[r] leg[s] straight, […] don’t hunch up your shoulders so;

    5. To walk (somewhere) while hunching one's shoulders.

      • […] the figure hunched up the road.
      • […] 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.

    6. To thrust a hump or protuberance out of (something)

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

      • […] thou art all one errour; soul and body. The first young tryal of some unskill’d Pow’r; Rude in the making Art, and Ape of Jove. Thy crooked mind within hunch’d out thy back; And wander’d in thy limbs:

    7. To push or jostle with the elbow

      To push or jostle with the elbow; to push or thrust against (someone).

      • After this, we saw a great Troop of Women upon the High-way to Hell, with their Bags; and their fellows, at their Heels, ever, and anon, hunching, and Justling one Another.
      • Hickman, a great over-grown, lank-hair’d, chubby boy, who would be hunch’d and punch’d by every-body; and go home, with his finger in his eye, and tell his mother.
      • 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.

    8. To have a hunch, or make an intuitive guess.

      • People who are instinctive hunchers go through some such process at every decision-making point of their lives. It is likely that children often make decisions and discern truths by hunching.

The neighborhood

Vish — recursive loop

No curated loop yet for hunch. Loops are being traced one word at a time while the ingestion pipeline matures.

sense glosses and etymology drawn from English Wiktionary · source · CC-BY-SA