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hut

American  
[huht] / hʌt /

noun

  • huts
    plural
  1. a small or humble dwelling of simple construction, especially one made of natural materials, as of logs or grass.

    Synonyms:
    hovel, shed
  2. a simple roofed shelter, often with one or two sides left open.

  3. Military. a wooden or metal structure for the temporary housing of troops.


verb (used with object)

hutted, hutting
  1. to furnish with a hut as temporary housing; billet.

verb (used without object)

hutted, hutting
  1. to lodge or take a shelter in a hut.

hut British  
/ hʌt /

noun

  1. a small house or shelter, usually made of wood or metal

  2. (on a sheep or cattle station) accommodation for the shearers, stockmen, etc

  3. a shelter for mountaineers, skiers, etc

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

verb

  1. to furnish with or live in a hut

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

Inflected Forms

Nouns


Etymology

Origin of hut

1645–55; < French hutte < Frankish, cognate with Old Saxon hutta, Old High German hutt ( e ) a < West Germanic *hudjā; akin to hide 1


Explanation

If you've ever camped under a wooden lean-to, you know what a hut is — it's a simple, usually temporary shelter that doesn't do much more than keep the rain off your head. A hut can be built from many different materials, including wood, stone, snow, or even cardboard. What all huts have in common is a simple design and the intention that it provide a short-term shelter from the weather. Campers, hikers, and skiers often rest or sleep in huts. The word comes from the French hutte, "cottage," which has its root in the Old English word for "to hide," hydan. Hut was originally used in English to describe military dwellings.

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Vocabulary lists containing hut

Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

See Examples For:

It refers to the mythical Slavic crone, Baba Yaga, who either gives heroes a boon or lures wayward children to a forest hut that moves around on bird legs.

From Salon ● Oct. 31, 2026

Staff at a mountain hut found the child near the sixth station of a hiking route towards the summit and alerted police.

From BBC ● Aug. 22, 2026

His video, which rapidly surged to more than 750,000 views, shows his vehicle approaching an unfinished wooden guard hut with stud walls still visible on the outside.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 12, 2026

In his small stone hut at the entrance to the Cavustepe site, Kusman is undaunted by the doubters.

From Barron's ● Aug. 10, 2026

A few minutes later they tumbled onto Shell Beach, below where the hut used to be.

From "Nim’s Island" by Wendy Orr

For this humble fishing village in Yemen, a tumbledown grouping of barely-there huts nestled between the water and an imposing mountain range, stands sentinel over one of the world’s most vital waterways.

From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 27, 2026

Indian authorities have built replicas of the huts to get their athletes used to living in them.

From BBC ● Sep. 16, 2026

Photos show the construction of observation huts to the north, south and west of the blast site, some 10,000 yards—about 5½ miles—away.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 7, 2026

None of the huts are allowed to have power and all offer basic shelter.

From BBC ● Jun. 24, 2026

The village’s dirt streets were lined with huts.

From "Most Dangerous: Daniel Ellsberg and the Secret History of the Vietnam War" by Steve Sheinkin

In the arrangement for winter-quarters, the Pennsylvania line, consisting of six regiments, was hutted near Morristown.

From The Student's Life of Washington; Condensed from the Larger Work of Washington Irving For Young Persons and for the Use of Schools by Washington Irving

Captain Winslow and the officers and the crew of the “Osterley,” who had been hutted at a distance from the rest, on hearing the firing, had broken through the sentries, and hurried to the spot.

From Ronald Morton, or the Fire Ships A Story of the Last Naval War by T. Hoggans

The dreary encampment at Valley Forge has become proverbial for its hardships; yet they were scarcely more severe than those suffered by Washington's army during the present winter, while hutted among the heights of Morristown.

From The Student's Life of Washington; Condensed from the Larger Work of Washington Irving For Young Persons and for the Use of Schools by Washington Irving

The one with which Washington made his headquarters was hutted on the heights about Morristown, N.J.

From Philip Winwood A Sketch of the Domestic History of an American Captain in the War of Independence; Embracing Events that Occurred between and during the Years 1763 and 1786, in New York and London: written by His Enemy in War, Herbert Russell, Lieutenant in the Loyalist Forces. by Robert Neilson Stephens

In fact, we were no sooner hutted than we were on the march, if there were but the least excuse in the way of a bit of open weather, or a Tory raid.

From Hugh Wynne, Free Quaker by S. Weir (Silas Weir) Mitchell

Do you remember when Prout and you were on their track for hutting and trespass, wasn't it?

From Stalky & Co. by Rudyard Kipling

The troops were landed, and there being no barrack accommodation for them, some succeeded in hutting themselves most comfortably.

From History of Prince Edward Island by Duncan Campbell

It was now the middle of February; the rains began to fall very heavy, and pointed the necessity of hutting the people; convicts were therefore appointed to assist the detachment in this work.

From A Source Book of Australian History by Gwendolen H. Swinburne

He frequently accompanied the General, as at Valley Forge, in his visits to the encampment on the mountain, where the emaciated tattered wretches were hutting with all possible speed against the severity of another winter.

From The Conqueror by Gertrude Franklin Horn Atherton

We were put on shore on the 8th February, and instantly commenced hutting ourselves by brigades.

From Twenty-Five Years in the Rifle Brigade by William Surtees

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