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hunchback

[huhnch-bak]
noun
  1. a person whose back is humped in a convex position because of abnormal spinal curvature.Compare kyphosis, kyphoscoliosis.
  2. humpback(def 1).
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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

Historical Examples

  • 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.

  • Hunchback figures with the tanks mounted on their shoulders.

  • 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
  1. a person having an abnormal convex curvature of the thoracic spine
  2. such a curvature
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Also called: humpback
Compare kyphosis, hollow-back
Derived Formshunchbacked, adjective

Word Origin

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

n.

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

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Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper