hunch

[huhnch]

verb (used with object)

to thrust out or up in a hump; arch: to hunch one's back.
to shove, push, or jostle.

verb (used without object)

to thrust oneself forward jerkily; lunge forward.
to stand, sit, or walk in a bent posture.

noun

a premonition or suspicion; guess: I have a hunch he'll run for reelection.
a hump.
a push or shove.
a lump or thick piece.

Origin of hunch

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

Can be confusedhaunch hunch

Synonyms for hunch

5. surmise, feeling, theory, conjecture.

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

Related Words for hunching

instinct, premonition, intuition, inkling, stoop, huddle, squat, impression, foreboding, augury, portent, anticipation, hint, precognition, forecast, foreknowledge, suspicion, glimmer, presage, forewarning

Examples from the Web for hunching

Historical Examples of hunching

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.
The Border Legion
Zane Grey
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

an intuitive guess or feeling
another word for hump
a lump or large piece

verb

to bend or draw (oneself or a part of the body) up or together
(intr usually foll by up) to sit in a hunched position

Word Origin for hunch

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).