hunch

Meanings

Noun

• A hump; a protuberance.
• A stooped or curled posture; a slouch.
• A theory, idea, or guess; an intuitive impression that something will happen.
• A hunk; a lump; a thick piece.
• A push or thrust, as with the elbow.

Verb

• To bend the top of one's body forward while raising one's shoulders.
• 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).
• To walk (somewhere) while hunching one's shoulders.
• To thrust a hump or protuberance out of (something); to crook, as the back.
• To push or jostle with the elbow; to push or thrust against (someone).
• To have a hunch, or make an intuitive guess.

Related

Similar words

• hint, clue, inkling

Origin

• Assibilated variant of hunk, of uncertain origin.
• Alternatively, a derivative of hump, via an earlier Middle English *hunche, *humpchin, from --chen, 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.