hut
Americannoun
-
huts
plural
verb (used with object)
verb (used without object)
noun
-
a small house or shelter, usually made of wood or metal
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(on a sheep or cattle station) accommodation for the shearers, stockmen, etc
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a shelter for mountaineers, skiers, etc
verb
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Etymology
Origin of hut
1645–55; < French hutte < Frankish, cognate with Old Saxon hutta, Old High German hutt ( e ) a < West Germanic *hudjā; akin to hide 1
Explanation
If you've ever camped under a wooden lean-to, you know what a hut is — it's a simple, usually temporary shelter that doesn't do much more than keep the rain off your head. A hut can be built from many different materials, including wood, stone, snow, or even cardboard. What all huts have in common is a simple design and the intention that it provide a short-term shelter from the weather. Campers, hikers, and skiers often rest or sleep in huts. The word comes from the French hutte, "cottage," which has its root in the Old English word for "to hide," hydan. Hut was originally used in English to describe military dwellings.
Vocabulary lists containing hut
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
Russell Wolfe recalled discussions of placing it in “a Quonset hut or some kind of museum,” possibly in Ghana or Kenya.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 22, 2026
In his small stone hut at the entrance to the Cavustepe site, Kusman is undaunted by the doubters.
From Barron's ● Aug. 10, 2026
So, before jumping into today’s news, don’t miss: a lively reader debate on Gen X’s affinity for bars and one couple’s journey renovating a ramshackle hut on the Irish coast into their dream home.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 6, 2026
He refused and walked straight to the recorders' hut.
From BBC ● Jul. 17, 2026
Without even knowing where he was going he found himself running toward his beach, toward Zheng’s hut.
From "The Boy Who Met a Whale" by Nizrana Farook
For this humble fishing village in Yemen, a tumbledown grouping of barely-there huts nestled between the water and an imposing mountain range, stands sentinel over one of the world’s most vital waterways.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 27, 2026
However, most mountain huts and toilet facilities are closed off season.
From BBC ● Sep. 16, 2026
Photos show the construction of observation huts to the north, south and west of the blast site, some 10,000 yards—about 5½ miles—away.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 7, 2026
Observations show the people use narrow outrigger canoes, live in large communal huts, carry spears, bows and arrows, and wear fibre waistbelts, as well as necklaces and headbands.
From Barron's ● May 18, 2026
Only the families of the boys being initiated were allowed to set up their huts in that village.
From "Facing the Lion" by Joseph Lemasolai Lekuton and Herman Viola
Captain Winslow and the officers and the crew of the “Osterley,” who had been hutted at a distance from the rest, on hearing the firing, had broken through the sentries, and hurried to the spot.
From Ronald Morton, or the Fire Ships A Story of the Last Naval War by T. Hoggans
The one with which Washington made his headquarters was hutted on the heights about Morristown, N.J.
From Philip Winwood A Sketch of the Domestic History of an American Captain in the War of Independence; Embracing Events that Occurred between and during the Years 1763 and 1786, in New York and London: written by His Enemy in War, Herbert Russell, Lieutenant in the Loyalist Forces. by Robert Neilson Stephens
His troops, hutted among the heights of Morristown, were half fed, half clothed, and inferior in number to the garrison of New York.
From The Student's Life of Washington; Condensed from the Larger Work of Washington Irving For Young Persons and for the Use of Schools by Washington Irving
During the winter which followed the campaign of 1779, Washington, with his army hutted on the heights of Morristown, was beset by pressing and formidable difficulties.
From Life and Times of Washington, Volume 2 Revised, Enlarged, and Enriched by John Frederick Schroeder
In the arrangement for winter-quarters, the Pennsylvania line, consisting of six regiments, was hutted near Morristown.
From The Student's Life of Washington; Condensed from the Larger Work of Washington Irving For Young Persons and for the Use of Schools by Washington Irving
He frequently accompanied the General, as at Valley Forge, in his visits to the encampment on the mountain, where the emaciated tattered wretches were hutting with all possible speed against the severity of another winter.
From The Conqueror by Gertrude Franklin Horn Atherton
Kinds of designs and experiments in hutting could be practised without expense in this simple way.
From The Art of Travel Shifts and Contrivances Available in Wild Countries by Sir Francis Galton
The troops were landed, and there being no barrack accommodation for them, some succeeded in hutting themselves most comfortably.
From History of Prince Edward Island by Duncan Campbell
Do you remember when Prout and you were on their track for hutting and trespass, wasn't it?
From Stalky & Co. by Rudyard Kipling
The king, excitedly impatient, now led the way again, shooting hurry-scurry through my men's lines, which were much commented on as being different from Waganda hutting, on to the tall tree with the adjutant's nest.
From The Discovery of the Source of the Nile by John Hanning Speke
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
