hunch
Part of speech: noun
verb
Morphological type: derivation
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.
Affixes: -chen
Inflected forms:
form: hunches
pos: noun
tags: plural
form: hunches
pos: verb
tags: present
singular
third-person
form: hunching
pos: verb
tags: participle
present
form: hunched
pos: verb
tags: participle
past
form: hunched
pos: verb
tags: past
Senses:
gloss: A hump; a protuberance.
pos: noun
gloss: A stooped or curled posture; a slouch.
pos: noun
examples: The old man walked with a hunch.
gloss: A theory, idea, or guess; an intuitive impression that something will happen.
pos: noun
examples: I have a hunch they'll find a way to solve the problem.
I've learned to trust my hunches.
gloss: A hunk; a lump; a thick piece.
pos: noun
examples: a hunch of bread
"The greedy little bastards! They had a 'unch of bread each when I 'ad my dinner."
gloss: A push or thrust, as with the elbow.
pos: noun
gloss: To bend the top of one's body forward while raising one's shoulders.
pos: verb
tags: intransitive
examples: 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.
gloss: 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).
pos: verb
tags: transitive
examples: 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;
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.
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.
gloss: To walk (somewhere) while hunching one's shoulders.
pos: verb
tags: intransitive
examples: […] 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.
gloss: To thrust a hump or protuberance out of (something); to crook, as the back.
pos: verb
tags: transitive
examples: […] 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:
gloss: To push or jostle with the elbow; to push or thrust against (someone).
pos: verb
tags: transitive
examples: 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.
She hunched me and winked.
[…] Crunch burst through, pretending to be in Croke Park or somewhere, hunching me away with his shoulder and holding the ghost of other players at bay as he picked up the football.
gloss: To have a hunch, or make an intuitive guess.
pos: verb
tags: colloquial
intransitive
examples: 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.
Derived words: hunchbacked
hunch cuddy hunch
hunchless
unhunch
hunch over
huncher
hunchback
play a hunch
play one's hunch
follow one's hunch
Translations: