haunt
Americanverb (used with object)
-
haunts,
present (3rd person singular)
-
haunted,
past participle, past
-
haunting
present participle
-
to visit habitually or appear to frequently as a spirit or ghost.
to haunt a house; to haunt a person.
-
to recur persistently to the consciousness of; remain with.
Memories of love haunted him.
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to visit frequently; go to often.
He haunted the galleries and bars that the artists went to.
- Synonyms:
- frequent
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to frequent the company of; be often with.
He haunted famous men, hoping to gain celebrity for himself.
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to disturb or distress; cause to have anxiety; trouble; worry.
His youthful escapades came back to haunt him.
verb (used without object)
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haunts,
present (3rd person singular)
-
haunted,
past participle, past
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haunting
present participle
-
to reappear continually as a spirit or ghost.
-
to visit habitually or regularly.
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to remain persistently; loiter; stay; linger.
noun
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haunts
plural
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Often haunts. a place frequently visited.
to return to one's old haunts.
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Chiefly Midland and Southern U.S. and North England. a ghost.
verb
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to visit (a person or place) in the form of a ghost
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(tr) to intrude upon or recur to (the memory, thoughts, etc)
he was haunted by the fear of insanity
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to visit (a place) frequently
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to associate with (someone) frequently
noun
-
(often plural) a place visited frequently
an old haunt of hers
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a place to which animals habitually resort for food, drink, shelter, etc
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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hauntsimple
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hauntssimple
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have hauntedperfect
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has hauntedperfect
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am hauntingprogressive
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are hauntingprogressive
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is hauntingprogressive
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have been hauntingperfect progressive
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has been hauntingperfect progressive
Past
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hauntedsimple
-
had hauntedperfect
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was hauntingprogressive
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were hauntingprogressive
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had been hauntingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of haunt
1200–50; Middle English haunten < Old French hanter to frequent, probably < Old Norse heimta to lead home, derivative of heim homewards; see home
Explanation
The verb to haunt means to appear as a ghost or some kind of supernatural phenomenon. Ebenezer Scrooge was haunted by the Ghosts of Christmases Past, Present and Future. The first recorded usage of the word haunt is in William Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream, a play filled with supernatural characters running around scaring the knickers off each other. As Shakespeare knew, haunting is at its most effective in the passive voice, because there is much more drama in being haunted than haunting. Another use of the word haunt is as a noun, and it means "a place that is frequented often," like a popular hangout. The gym, a bar, a corner: these are all potential haunts. The dentist, the principal’s office, a busy intersection: these are not.
Vocabulary lists containing haunt
The Grim Reader: Wicked Words of Grave Importance for Halloween
Looking to grow your vocabulary? Check out this interactive, curated word list from our team of English language specialists at Vocabulary.com – one of over 17,000 lists we've built to help learners worldwide!
"Macbeth" Vocabulary from Act I
Interested in learning more words like this one? Our team at Vocabulary.com has got you covered! You can review flashcards, quiz yourself, practice spelling, and more – and it's all completely free to use!
Uncanny, Creepy, or Downright Scary: Words For Halloween
Want to remember this word for good? Start your learning journey today with our library of interactive, themed word lists built by the experts at Vocabulary.com – we'll help you make the most of your study time!
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:
As Carragher said: "They have to sort the goalkeeping issue out because it's going to come back and haunt them again this season as it did tonight."
From BBC ● Aug. 24, 2026
By 2030, that decision could come back to haunt the U.S.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 24, 2026
Although he understood Opel's need to remain competitive globally, he worried that a strategy of cutting German engineering expertise could eventually "come back to haunt them in the long run".
From Barron's ● Aug. 16, 2026
Spider-Man finds time to haunt MJ’s Instagram stories amidst all manner of chaos breaking out in the streets of New York and beyond?
From Salon ● Aug. 3, 2026
That remedy came back to haunt the Jacksons.
From "In the Shadow of Liberty" by Kenneth C. Davis
Writers who remained employed on this hollowed-out web were increasingly left wondering where all their favorite haunts had gone.
From Salon ● Aug. 23, 2026
Many of the city's old storied haunts are closed.
From Barron's ● Aug. 18, 2026
"It haunts myself as the senior investigating officer, and I think that comes down to the fact that Suzy's never been found," she said.
From BBC ● Jul. 28, 2026
The question haunts “Remake” — he includes an indelible sequence from “Sherman’s March” in which his longtime friend Charleen upbraids him for always having the camera out.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 16, 2026
Coach Murphy still haunts the old fields where his boys bunted down the line, and with graceless fever took infield in voices that cried out for fathers.
From "The Great Santini" by Pat Conroy
“I soon learned that the previous bidder had been told by her psychic that the house was haunted and had just withdrawn from escrow,” he revealed.
From MarketWatch ● Aug. 31, 2026
But even as she has sought to escape further and further from the outside world, she is haunted by questions about what happened at Parkwood.
From BBC ● Aug. 29, 2026
But Pete has always been haunted by a case that was never quite resolved, and when Jake gets snatched up there’s no question he’ll seek out Frank in prison and ask him what he knows.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 28, 2026
Sitting on the ground outside the hospital's entrance was a father who had lost his newborn son, and was now haunted by fears his wife might also die.
From Barron's ● Aug. 27, 2026
The moon had quadrupled its value by the time we reached the outer edge of the haunted desert and dangled in front of us like a shiny coin.
From "The Many Assassinations of Samir, the Seller of Dreams" by Daniel Nayeri
Best of all, the shocker revelation explaining the shivery occurrences is haunting and persuasive—within the wide parameters of the genre, of course.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 2, 2026
Here is a writer and director with not just plenty on his mind, but the preternatural proficiency to execute those ideas in haunting, humorous and really quite moving ways.
From Salon ● Aug. 24, 2026
This poses a haunting dilemma for those in the capital.
From Barron's ● Aug. 16, 2026
"The earthquake is haunting me," Deivi Delfín says.
From BBC ● Aug. 14, 2026
If any person reported actually having seen a giant haunting the streets of a town at night, there would most certainly be a terrific hullabaloo across the world.
From "The BFG" by Roald Dahl
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
