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)

1. to thrust oneself forward jerkily; lunge forward.
2. to stand, sit, or walk in a bent posture.

noun

1. a premonition or suspicion; guess:

   I have a hunch he'll run for reelection.

   Synonyms: conjecture, theory, feeling, surmise

2. a hump.
3. a push or shove.
4. a lump or thick piece.

hunch

/ hʌntʃ /

noun

1. an intuitive guess or feeling
2. See hump
   another word for hump
3. a lump or large piece

verb

1. to bend or draw (oneself or a part of the body) up or together
2. intrusually foll byup to sit in a hunched position

Word History and Origins

Origin of hunch¹

1590–1600; 1900–05 hunch fordef 5; apparently variant of obsolete hinch to push, shove, kick < ?

Word History and Origins

Origin of hunch¹

C16: of unknown origin

Example Sentences

On a hunch, she forwarded them to Fraser Hunter, an archaeologist and curator at the National Museum of Scotland.

From Popular-Science

I felt more excitement than fear, and had a hunch that living here would help me know myself in a new way.

From Outside Online

By the early 2000s, EMS became more popular among the fitness crowd, who zapped their muscles on a hunch that being jolted with electricity would increase their gains.

From Outside Online

Google has told us that filtering searches using this information isn’t possible right now, but that doesn’t mean that capability won’t eventually roll out — I have a strong hunch it will.

From Search Engine Land

My colleagues and I tested these hunches in a new study published in the journal Psychology of Men and Masculinities.

From No Straight News

An x-ray two hours later confirms my hunch: my tibia (the big bone behind the shin) is snapped clean in two.

From The Daily Beast

On the other hand, I have a hunch that Lady Gaga will pay some heavy dues for this career move.

From The Daily Beast

My hunch is that when you look at their most competitive races, women are not necessarily in the mix this year.

From The Daily Beast

I have a hunch that our collective adoration of OITNB outweighs the love for it, or even awareness of it, among Emmy voters.

From The Daily Beast

A federal agency simply has to “nominate” you if it has “reasonable suspicion”—which is slightly more than a hunch.

From The Daily Beast

All the domestic oxen without hunches have proceeded originally from the aurochs, and those with the hunch from the bison.

From Project Gutenberg

After I had knelt to hold the lantern close to the rails of the rusty timber track I knew my hunch was all right.

From Project Gutenberg

I can't persuade myself that Perry's guilty, and I've a hunch that I'm now on the trail of the right man.

From Project Gutenberg

On a hunch I dropped in an aluminum alkyl, and then pushed the polymerization along with both ultraviolet and heat.

From Project Gutenberg

He did not presume to understand women; he estimated her by a "hunch" as to whether she was good or bad.

From Project Gutenberg

Related Words

• inkling
• instinct
• intuition
• premonition