hut
Americannoun
verb (used with object)
verb (used without object)
noun
-
a small house or shelter, usually made of wood or metal
-
(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:
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
The hut was rebuilt in 2023 and first advertised last week, but comes with few frills.
From BBC ● Jun. 24, 2026
Despite this, six-figure sums are not uncommon - a newly-completed beach hut went on the market in Abersoch last month for the same price, plus another for £150,000, external.
From BBC ● Jun. 24, 2026
Shortly after arriving in Pyongyang, the American evangelist visited a humble thatched hut on the outskirts of Pyongyang where Kim was said to have been born on April 15, 1912.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 11, 2026
“Let’s go to the hut and think about what to do next.”
From "The Boy Who Met a Whale" by Nizrana Farook
The huts seat up to six and can be reserved for tastings or a meal of wood-fired pizzas from the winery’s restaurant, which opened in 2020.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 27, 2026
None of the huts are allowed to have power and all offer basic shelter.
From BBC ● Jun. 24, 2026
The huts offer shelter in a landscape without trees or natural shade, and where the sun reflects harshly off the white salt crust.
From Barron's ● May 10, 2026
Nyamumba Evelyne’s family moved into this settlement of six straw huts more than a decade ago.
From The Wall Street Journal ● May 9, 2026
We pretend that we are on a small tropical island that has no hotels, just little huts that stand in the water and come with butlers.
From "The Miscalculations of Lightning Girl" by Stacy McAnulty
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 Stephens, Robert Neilson
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 Mitchell, S. Weir (Silas Weir)
Most of the troops we passed had tents, and some were hutted in hovels made of pine-boughs, thatched with the leaves or twigs of those trees.
From In the Russian Ranks A Soldier's Account of the Fighting in Poland by Morse, John
For a long time we were hutted in the Square.
From Adventures of a Despatch Rider by Watson, William Henry Lowe
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 Schroeder, John Frederick
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 Speke, John Hanning
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 Swinburne, Gwendolen H.
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 Galton, Francis, Sir
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 Campbell, Duncan
Do you remember when Prout and you were on their track for hutting and trespass, wasn't it?
From Stalky & Co. by Kipling, Rudyard
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.
