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hunker
1[ huhng-ker ]
verb (used without object)
- to crouch or squat on one's heels:
He hunkered to be at eye level with his dog.
I can’t hunker with this bad knee.
- to hunch:
The driver hunkered over the steering wheel.
- to hide, hide out, or take shelter, often for just a few hours or less, as from a pursuer or a storm:
The escaped convicts hunkered in a cave in the mountains.
- to settle in to the safety of one’s home or other designated shelter for a potentially prolonged time, as would be necessitated by a natural disaster or an outbreak of a contagious disease:
Many local residents hunkered in the basement of the fire station.
- Slang. to lumber along; walk or move slowly or aimlessly:
A small black bear was seen hunkering through the neighborhood.
noun
- hunkers, one's haunches.
verb phrase
Hunker
2[ huhng-ker ]
noun
- a member of the conservative faction in the Democratic Party in New York State, 1845–48.
hunker
/ ˈʌŋə /
verb
- introften foll bydown to squat; crouch
Other Word Forms
- ܲk· noun
- ܲk·dzܲ adjective
- ܲk·dzܲ·ness noun
Word History and Origins
Origin of hunker1
Origin of hunker2
Idioms and Phrases
- on one's hunkers,
- British Informal. squatting on one's heels.
- suffering a period of poverty, bad luck, or the like.
Example Sentences
As residents hunker down, social media users are finding humour in their shelved weekend plans.
Instead, they may hunker down for an arid summer and then — if rain is sufficient — bloom in the spring of 2026, Becker said.
Monuments typically limit camping to particular areas, he said as an example, while some people want to be able to hunker down far from other people.
While keen surfers have been taking advantage of the wind and waves, most residents are hunkering down indoors.
Except sometimes it took a while to hunker down at night.
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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.
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