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hunch

[huhnch]
verb (used with object)
  1. to thrust out or up in a hump; arch: to hunch one's back.
  2. to shove, push, or jostle.
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verb (used without object)
  1. to thrust oneself forward jerkily; lunge forward.
  2. to stand, sit, or walk in a bent posture.
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noun
  1. a premonition or suspicion; guess: I have a hunch he'll run for reelection.
  2. a hump.
  3. a push or shove.
  4. a lump or thick piece.
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Origin of hunch

1590–1600; 1900–05 for def 5; apparently variant of obsolete hinch to push, shove, kick < ?
Can be confusedhaunch hunch

Synonyms

5. surmise, feeling, theory, conjecture.
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018

Related Words

instinctpremonitionintuitioninklingstoophuddlesquatimpressionforebodingauguryportentanticipationhintprecognitionforecastforeknowledgesuspicionglimmerpresageforewarning

Examples from the Web for hunching

Historical Examples

  • Keep the head down—tight with the left—no hunching—pivot on the hips.

    Ade's Fables

    George Ade

  • A little, whispering, hunching stir went through the courtroom.

    Back Home

    Irvin S. Cobb

  • Presently they sought their blankets, leaving Gulden hunching there silent in the gloom.

  • Then hunching his shoulders, turned inland, and took the field path.

    Lady Cassandra

    Mrs George de Horne Vaizey

  • He shook Farrell off—as it were—with a hunching movement of the shoulder, and turned to me.

    Foe-Farrell

    Arthur Thomas Quiller-Couch

British Dictionary definitions for hunching

hunch

noun
  1. an intuitive guess or feeling
  2. another word for hump
  3. a lump or large piece
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verb
  1. to bend or draw (oneself or a part of the body) up or together
  2. (intr usually foll by up) to sit in a hunched position
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Word Origin

C16: of unknown origin
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 hunching

hunch

originally (c.1500) a verb, "to push, thrust," of unknown origin. Meaning "raise or bend into a hump" is 1670s. Perhaps a variant of bunch. The noun is attested from 1620s, originally "a push, thrust." Figurative sense of "hint, tip" (a "push" toward a solution or answer), first recorded 1849, led to that of "premonition, presentiment" (1904).

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Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper