hunchback

[huhnch-bak]

noun

a person whose back is humped in a convex position because of abnormal spinal curvature.Compare kyphosis, kyphoscoliosis.
humpback(def 1).

Origin of hunchback

First recorded in 1705–15; back formation from hunchbacked

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018

Examples from the Web for hunchback

Contemporary Examples of hunchback

He was described by Shakespeare as having a hunchback and indeed the skeleton shows evidence of curvature of the spine.
CONFIRMED: Skeleton Found Under City Car Park IS That Of Villainous Richard III
Tom Sykes
February 4, 2013

Historical Examples of hunchback

As for the hunchback, he was broken on the wheel, being condemned on his own confession.'
Storyology
Benjamin Taylor
When he took the bolt from the hole, it was deformed, its head being askew like a hunchback's.
L'Assommoir
Emile Zola
Logre, the hunchback, you know, put one of the pieces over his shoulder.
The Fat and the Thin
Emile Zola
Hunchback figures with the tanks mounted on their shoulders.
Astounding Stories of Super-Science April 1930
Various
I had seen him kneeling on the ground with his head pinned down by the hunchback.
Romance
Joseph Conrad and F.M. Hueffer

British Dictionary definitions for hunchback

hunchback

noun

a person having an abnormal convex curvature of the thoracic spine
such a curvature

Also called: humpback

Compare kyphosis, hollow-back

Derived Formshunchbacked, adjective

Word Origin for hunchback

C18: from earlier hunchbacked, huckbacked humpbacked, influenced by bunchbacked, from bunch (in obsolete sense of hump) + backed

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

Word Origin and History for hunchback

"person with a hunched back," 1712, back-formation from hunchbacked (1590s; see hunch).