haunting

- 4 dictionary results

haunt⋅ing

[hawn-ting, hahn-]

–adjective

1.	remaining in the consciousness; not quickly forgotten: haunting music; haunting memories.

–noun

2.	the act of a person or thing that haunts; visitation.

Origin:
1275–1325; ME; see haunt, -ing ² , -ing ¹

Related forms:

haunt⋅ing⋅ly, adverb

[hawnt, hahnt; for 10 also hant]

–verb (used with object)

1.	to visit habitually or appear to frequently as a spirit or ghost: to haunt a house; to haunt a person.

2.	to recur persistently to the consciousness of; remain with: Memories of love haunted him.

3.	to visit frequently; go to often: He haunted the galleries and bars that the artists went to.

4.	to frequent the company of; be often with: He haunted famous men, hoping to gain celebrity for himself.

5.	to disturb or distress; cause to have anxiety; trouble; worry: His youthful escapades came back to haunt him.

–verb (used without object)

6.	to reappear continually as a spirit or ghost.

7.	to visit habitually or regularly.

8.	to remain persistently; loiter; stay; linger.

–noun

9.	Often, haunts. a place frequently visited: to return to one's old haunts.

10.	Chiefly Midland and Southern U.S. and North England. a ghost.

Origin:
1200–50; ME haunten < OF hanter to frequent, prob. < ON heimta to lead home, deriv. of heim homewards; see home

Related forms:

haunter, noun

Synonyms:
3. frequent. 5. obsess, beset, vex, plague.

Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2009.
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Link To haunting

haunt (hônt, hŏnt)

v. haunt·ed, haunt·ing, haunts

v. tr.

To inhabit, visit, or appear to in the form of a ghost or other supernatural being.
To visit often; frequent: haunted the movie theaters.
To come to the mind of continually; obsess: a riddle that haunted me all morning.
To be continually present in; pervade: the melancholy that haunts the composer's music.

v. intr.
To recur or visit often, especially as a ghost.
n.

A place much frequented.
also hant or ha'nt (hānt) or haint (hānt) Chiefly Southern U.S. A ghost or other supernatural being.

[Middle English haunten, to frequent, from Old French hanter; see tkei- in Indo-European roots.]
haunt'er n.

haunt·ing (hôn'tĭng, hŏn'-)

adj. Continually recurring to the mind; unforgettable: a haunting melody.
haunt'ing·ly adv.

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