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
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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
Elvin added interest in the hut had been "good" so far, with a number of inquiries already received.
From BBC ● Jun. 24, 2026
A beach hut with no electricity or running water has gone on the market for £200,000 - just shy of the average Welsh house price.
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
After breakfast we swept the hut, our shacks, and the master’s house.
From "Flying Through Water" by Mamle Wolo
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
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
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
International and specialist teams have since aided in the search that has stretched down caves, across rivers and into old mining huts.
From BBC ● Feb. 25, 2026
The women sat drawn and worried inside their huts.
From "A Girl Named Disaster" by Nancy Farmer
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
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 Hoggans, T.
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 Irving, Washington
The hunters were sent to look for a spring; and, one being found at no great distance, we all repaired to the spot, and hutted for the night.
From Satanstoe by Cooper, James Fenimore
In the winter of 1807, Napoleon established his army in cantonments behind the Passarge in face of the enemy, the advanced guard alone being hutted near the cities of Gutstadt, Osterode, &c.
From The Art of War by Mendell, George Henry
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
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.
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 Atherton, Gertrude Franklin Horn
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.
