noun
Meaning 1
A hump; a protuberance.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
Standard Lemma guide
hunch
Definitions and examples are grouped by meaning. Pronunciation, history, word forms, translations, descendants, synonyms, antonyms, derived terms, and related words appear whenever the source provides them.
Sound
Pronunciation
Each Play button uses your device's default local English voice, or a natural local fallback. The selected voice name appears after playback. This is synthesized speech, not a source recording.
-
/hʌnt͡ʃ/
-
/hʌnʃ/
-
US: Recorded audio is listed in the source snapshot.
-
rhymes with -ʌntʃ
-
CMU ARPABET: HH AH1 N CH Digits mark lexical stress: 1 primary, 2 secondary, 0 unstressed.
noun
Meaning 2
A stooped or curled posture; a slouch.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Examples
- The old man walked with a hunch.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
noun
Meaning 3
A theory, idea, or guess; an intuitive impression that something will happen.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Examples
- I have a hunch they'll find a way to solve the problem.
- I've learned to trust my hunches.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: inkling
Antonyms: none provided
noun
Meaning 4
A hunk; a lump; a thick piece.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Examples
- a hunch of bread
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
noun
Meaning 5
A push or thrust, as with the elbow.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
verb
Meaning 6
To bend the top of one's body forward while raising one's shoulders.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: intransitive
Examples
- Don't hunch over your computer if you want to avoid neck problems.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: slouch, stoop, lean
Antonyms: none provided
verb
Meaning 7
To raise (one's shoulders) (while lowering one's head or bending the top of one's body forward); to curve (one's body) forward (sometimes followed by up).
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: transitive
Examples
- They stood outside the door hunching themselves against the rain and puffing on their cigarettes.
- He hunched up his shoulders and stared down at the ground.
- 1938, Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings, New York: Scribner, Chapter 17, He would hunch his twisted body close and put out his gentle and crooked hand and touch the fawn.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
verb
Meaning 8
To walk (somewhere) while hunching one's shoulders.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: intransitive
Examples
- 1983, Jack Vance, Suldrun’s Garden, Spatterlight Press, 2012, Chapter 18, [...] wheezing and grunting he hunched across the room.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: slouch
Antonyms: none provided
verb
Meaning 9
To thrust a hump or protuberance out of (something); to crook, as the back.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: transitive
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
verb
Meaning 10
To push or jostle with the elbow; to push or thrust against (someone).
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: transitive
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: elbow, nudge
Antonyms: none provided
verb
Meaning 11
To have a hunch, or make an intuitive guess.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: colloquial, intransitive
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
noun
Meaning 12
the act of bending yourself into a humped position
Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
Broader terms: bending
noun
Meaning 13
an impression that something might be the case
Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0
Examples
- he had an intuition that something had gone wrong
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: intuition, suspicion
Antonyms: none provided
Broader terms: impression, feeling, belief, notion, opinion
Narrower terms: heart, bosom
verb
Meaning 14
round one's back by bending forward and drawing the shoulders forward
Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: hump, hunch forward, hunch over
Antonyms: none provided
Broader terms: change posture
History
Etymology
Assibilated variant of hunk, of uncertain origin. Alternatively, a derivative of hump, via an earlier Middle English *hunche, *humpchin, from *hump + -chin, -chen (diminutive suffix), equivalent to hump + -kin. In the sense of an intuitive impression, said to be from the old gambling superstition that it brings luck to touch the hump of a hunchback.
Across languages
Translations
122 source translations are retained for this English entry.
- Azerbaijani: donqa — hump; protuberance
- Bulgarian: гърбица (gǎrbica) — hump; protuberance
- Catalan: gep — hump; protuberance
- Czech: hrb — hump; protuberance
- Dutch: bochel — hump; protuberance
- Dutch: bult — hump; protuberance
- Esperanto: ĝibo — hump; protuberance
- Finnish: kyttyrä — hump; protuberance
- French: bosse — hump; protuberance
- Galician: chepa — hump; protuberance
- German: Hügel — hump; protuberance
- German: Protuberanz — hump; protuberance
- German: Buckel — hump; protuberance
- Greek: καμπούρα (kampoúra) — hump; protuberance
- Greek: όγκος (ógkos) — hump; protuberance
- Italian: gibbo — hump; protuberance
- Latin: gibbus — hump; protuberance
- Latin: gibber — hump; protuberance
- Macedonian: гр́пка (gŕpka) — hump; protuberance
- Portuguese: corcunda — hump; protuberance
- Portuguese: corcova — hump; protuberance
- Portuguese: protuberância — hump; protuberance
- Sicilian: jimmu — hump; protuberance
- Spanish: joroba — hump; protuberance
- Spanish: corcova — hump; protuberance
- Spanish: giba — hump; protuberance
- Spanish: chepa — hump; protuberance
- Spanish: gibosidad — hump; protuberance
- Turkish: tümsek — hump; protuberance
- Bulgarian: изгърбване (izgǎrbvane) — stooped or curled posture
- Dutch: gekromde houding — stooped or curled posture
- Dutch: kromme rug — stooped or curled posture
- Finnish: kumara — stooped or curled posture
- German: gekrümmte Haltung — stooped or curled posture
- German: krummer Rücken — stooped or curled posture
- Greek: καμπούρα (kampoúra) — stooped or curled posture
- Hungarian: púp — stooped or curled posture
- Hungarian: kinövés — stooped or curled posture
- Hungarian: dudor — stooped or curled posture
- Icelandic: hokinn — stooped or curled posture
- Macedonian: подгрбу́вање (podgrbúvanje) — stooped or curled posture
- Russian: сутулая поза — stooped or curled posture
- Uzbek: bukri — stooped or curled posture
- Bulgarian: предчувствие (predčuvstvie) — idea, theory
- Catalan: pressentiment — idea, theory
- Chinese Mandarin: 预感 (yùgǎn) — idea, theory
- Czech: tušení — idea, theory
- Czech: předtucha — idea, theory
- Czech: pocit — idea, theory
- Dutch: ingeving — idea, theory
- Dutch: idee — idea, theory
- Esperanto: intuicio — idea, theory
- Finnish: aavistus — idea, theory
- French: intuition — idea, theory
- French: pressentiment — idea, theory
- German: Ahnung — idea, theory
- German: Gefühl — idea, theory
- Greek: προαίσθημα (proaísthima) — idea, theory
- Hebrew: תְּחוּשַׁת בֶּטֶן (tẖushát béten) — idea, theory
- Hungarian: gyanú — idea, theory
- Hungarian: sejtelem — idea, theory
- Hungarian: megérzés — idea, theory
- Irish: tuaileas — idea, theory
- Italian: intuizione — idea, theory
- Italian: presentimento — idea, theory
- Macedonian: пре́тчувство (prétčuvstvo) — idea, theory
- Norwegian Bokmål: forutanelse — idea, theory
- Norwegian Bokmål: hunch — idea, theory
- Portuguese: palpite — idea, theory
- Portuguese: pressentimento — idea, theory
- Portuguese: intuição — idea, theory
- Russian: иде́я (idéja) — idea, theory
- Russian: дога́дка (dogádka) — idea, theory
- Spanish: corazonada — idea, theory
- Spanish: pálpito — idea, theory
- Spanish: intuición — idea, theory
- Spanish: tinca — idea, theory
- Spanish: presentimiento — idea, theory
- Swedish: aning — idea, theory
- Swedish: hum — idea, theory
- Tagalog: kutob — idea, theory
- Turkish: his — idea, theory
- Turkish: önsezi — idea, theory
- Turkish: sezgi — idea, theory
- Uzbek: taxmin — idea, theory
- Bulgarian: бу́ца (búca) — hunk; lump; thick piece
- Bulgarian: кома́т (komát) — hunk; lump; thick piece
- Finnish: kimpale — hunk; lump; thick piece
- German: dickes Stück — hunk; lump; thick piece
- Macedonian: па́рче (párče) — hunk; lump; thick piece
- Finnish: tönäisy — push or thrust
- Bulgarian: прегърбвам се (pregǎrbvam se) — to slouch, stoop
- Czech: ohnout se — to slouch, stoop
- Czech: hrbit se — to slouch, stoop
- Czech: shrbit se — to slouch, stoop
- Czech: nahrbit se — to slouch, stoop
- Finnish: kyyristellä — to slouch, stoop
- Finnish: olla kumarassa — to slouch, stoop
- French: se voûter — to slouch, stoop
- Greek: καμπουριάζω (kampouriázo) — to slouch, stoop
- Kazakh: бүкірею (bükıreü) — to slouch, stoop
- Macedonian: се на́ведне (se návedne) — to slouch, stoop
- Macedonian: се подгр́бави (se podgŕbavi) — to slouch, stoop
- Macedonian: грба́вее (grbávee) — to slouch, stoop
- Māori: whakahake — to slouch, stoop
- Portuguese: curvar — to slouch, stoop
- Russian: суту́литься (sutúlitʹsja) — to slouch, stoop
- Russian: го́рбиться (górbitʹsja) — to slouch, stoop
- Russian: сгиба́ться (sgibátʹsja) — to slouch, stoop
- Swedish: huka — to slouch, stoop
- Finnish: tönäistä — to push or thrust suddenly
- Bulgarian: извивам (izvivam) — to thrust out a hump or protuberance; to crook, as the back
- Finnish: köyristää — to thrust out a hump or protuberance; to crook, as the back
- Macedonian: подгр́бави (podgŕbavi) — to thrust out a hump or protuberance; to crook, as the back
- Macedonian: и́скриви (ískrivi) — to thrust out a hump or protuberance; to crook, as the back
- Czech: mít tušení — to have a hunch, or make an intuitive guess
- Czech: mít předtuchu — to have a hunch, or make an intuitive guess
- Czech: tušit — to have a hunch, or make an intuitive guess
- Finnish: aavistaa — to have a hunch, or make an intuitive guess
- Finnish: uumoilla — to have a hunch, or make an intuitive guess
- Finnish: ounastella — to have a hunch, or make an intuitive guess
- Finnish: vaistota — to have a hunch, or make an intuitive guess