hunch
verb/hʌntʃ/
/hʌntʃ/
[intransitive, transitive]Verb Forms
| present simple I / you / we / they hunch | /hʌntʃ/ /hʌntʃ/ |
| he / she / it hunches | /ˈhʌntʃɪz/ /ˈhʌntʃɪz/ |
| past simple hunched | /hʌntʃt/ /hʌntʃt/ |
| past participle hunched | /hʌntʃt/ /hʌntʃt/ |
| -ing form hunching | /ˈhʌntʃɪŋ/ /ˈhʌntʃɪŋ/ |
- to bend the top part of your body forward and raise your shoulders and back
- (+ adv./prep.) She leaned forward, hunching over the desk.
- hunch something He hunched his shoulders and thrust his hands deep into his pockets.
Extra ExamplesTopics Appearancec2- He hunched over the map.
- He hunched up his shoulders.
- She hunched forward to see the picture.
- She sat hunched on the bed all day.
Oxford Collocations DictionaryHunch is used with these nouns as the object:- back
- shoulder
Word Originlate 15th cent.: of unknown origin. The original meaning was ‘push, shove’ (noun and verb), a sense retained now in Scots as a noun, and in US dialect as a verb. This sense of the noun probably derives from a US sense of the verb ‘nudge someone in order to draw attention to something’.Definitions on the go
Look up any word in the dictionary offline, anytime, anywhere with the Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary app.
Check pronunciation:
hunch