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
-
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:
His video, which rapidly surged to more than 750,000 views, shows his vehicle approaching an unfinished wooden guard hut with stud walls still visible on the outside.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 12, 2026
After returning to Ithaca disguised by Athena as an old beggar, Odysseus reveals himself to the son he hasn’t seen since infancy in the hut of the swineherd Eumaeus.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 21, 2026
Despite the seemingly-high price tag, estate agent Rhys Elvin expects the hut to be highly sought-after as technically, it means someone can own part of the beach.
From BBC ● Jun. 24, 2026
In “The Getaway”—filmed twice for the big screen—Doc and Carol McCoy conclude their escape hiding in caves, then a hut made of dung, before they end up in the infernal domain of El Rey.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 2, 2026
She sprinted to the hut and grabbed her wagon; dumped in the shark, slimy and rotting.
From "Nim’s Island" by Wendy Orr
Children linger in the narrow shade cast by the huts, some too tired to play, others trailing silently after their mothers.
From Barron's ● Jun. 29, 2026
"We've not seen one for years," he said, noting there were only 17 huts on that stretch compared with about 50 on the left side.
From BBC ● Jun. 24, 2026
While beach huts regularly come up for sale in Abersoch, Elvin said it was rare for one on the beach's more sought-after right-hand side to reach the open market.
From BBC ● Jun. 24, 2026
At the beginning of the war, I filmed brilliant young men tinkering in forest huts, using 3-D printers to build their first “birds of fire.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● Mar. 18, 2026
A mud hut, thatched, small, set near a paddy field, with two or three similar huts nearby.
From "Nectar in a Sieve" by Kamala Markandaya
The dreary encampment at Valley Forge has become proverbial for its hardships; yet they were scarcely more severe than those suffered by Washington's army during the present winter, while hutted among the heights of 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
In fact, we were no sooner hutted than we were on the march, if there were but the least excuse in the way of a bit of open weather, or a Tory raid.
From Hugh Wynne, Free Quaker by S. Weir (Silas Weir) Mitchell
Farewell, Romance!" the Lake-folk sighed; "We lift the weight of flatling years; The caverns of the mountain-side Hold him who scorns our hutted piers.
From Verses 1889-1896 by Rudyard Kipling
One or two families of natives afterwards appeared hutted on the riverbank nearly opposite to our camp, and Piper opened a conversation with them across the river.
From Three Expeditions into the Interior of Eastern Australia, Volume 2 by Thomas Mitchell
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
It was now the middle of February; the rains began to fall very heavy, and pointed the necessity of hutting the people; convicts were therefore appointed to assist the detachment in this work.
From A Source Book of Australian History by Gwendolen H. Swinburne
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
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
We were put on shore on the 8th February, and instantly commenced hutting ourselves by brigades.
From Twenty-Five Years in the Rifle Brigade by William Surtees
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
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.
