hanker

American

[hang-ker] / ˈhæŋ kər /

verb (used without object)

to have a restless or incessant longing (often followed by after, for, or an infinitive).

hanker British

/ ˈhæŋkə /

verb

to have a yearning (for something or to do something)

"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

Related Words

See yearn.

Other Word Forms

hankerer noun
hankering noun

Etymology

Origin of hanker

First recorded in 1595–1605; from early Dutch dialect hankeren (cognate with Dutch hunkeren ), frequentative of hangen “to hang”; hang

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.

We do often hanker to leave town on multimonth adventures that break us out of our routines.

From The Wall Street Journal • Mar. 6, 2026

When people in the Niassa Special Reserve of northern Mozambique hanker for something sweet, they don’t call DoorDash or Uber Eats.

From Science Magazine • Dec. 6, 2023

Americans, meanwhile, likely hanker for some reassurance, solid facts, helpful hints and news of promising plans.

From Washington Times • Aug. 31, 2022

Designers, pundits and consumers alike hanker for reasons to dress up again — routinely and in public.

From New York Times • Feb. 9, 2022

We hanker to go on, even in the face of plain evidence that long, long lives are not necessarily pleasurable in the kind of society we have arranged thus far.

From "The Lives of a Cell" by Lewis Thomas

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023