Nearby Words

hunch

[huhnch] Example Sentences Origin

hunch

[huhnch]
verb (used with object)
1.
to thrust out or up in a hump; arch: to hunch one's back.
2.
to shove, push, or jostle.
verb (used without object)
3.
to thrust oneself forward jerkily; lunge forward.
4.
to stand, sit, or walk in a bent posture.

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Hunch is one of our favorite verbs.
So is skedaddle. Does it mean:
to flee; abscond:
to run away hurriedly; flee.
noun
5.
a premonition or suspicion; guess: I have a hunch he'll run for reelection.
6.
a hump.
7.
a push or shove.
8.
a lump or thick piece.

Origin:
1590–1600; 1900–05 for def. 5; apparently variant of obsolete hinch to push, shove, kick < ?

haunch, hunch.


5. surmise, feeling, theory, conjecture.

Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2012.
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Example Sentences
  • Braskett said he had a hunch that the new plan had borrowed from his older one.
  • On that hunch she initiated a guest-speaker program that immediately ignited postings and increased list subscriptions.
  • Comparative statistics are hard to come by, but there might be something in that hunch.
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Collins
World English Dictionary
hunch (hʌntʃ)
 
n
1.  an intuitive guess or feeling
2.  another word for hump
3.  a lump or large piece
 
vb (usually foll by up)
4.  to bend or draw (oneself or a part of the body) up or together
5.  to sit in a hunched position
 
[C16: of unknown origin]

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 10th Edition
2009 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009
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Etymonline
Word Origin & History

hunch
originally (1581) a verb, "to push, thrust," of unknown origin. Meaning "raise or bend into a hump" is 1598, in hunchbacked. Perhaps a variant of bunch. Figurative sense of "hint, tip" (a "push" toward a solution or answer), first recorded 1849, led to that of "premonition, presentiment" (1904).
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper
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