hunchback

[ huhnch-bak ]

/ ˈhʌntʃˌbæk /

noun

a person whose back is humped in a convex position because of abnormal spinal curvature.Compare kyphosis, kyphoscoliosis.

humpback(def 1).

Nearby words

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. 2019

Examples from the Web for 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|DAILY BEAST
The words bosse and bossu (hunch and hunchback) have various idiomatic and proverbial applications in France.
Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, Volume 64, No. 397, November 1848|Various
It is from that gentleman, the hunchback, you remember, that you once met here.
Pride|Eugne Sue
The hunchback snarled his rebuke in Blaine's face and turned to Tom.
The Copper-Clad World|Harl Vincent

His face seemed as though it belonged to a hunchback whose hunch was inside of him.
Ursula|Honore de Balzac
The horses were submissive enough while the hunchback removed and changed their saddles.
Frank Merriwell's Triumph|Burt L. Standish

British Dictionary definitions for hunchback

hunchback

/ (ˈhʌntʃˌbæk) /

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

hunchback

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