hunch1 nounhunch2 verb
hunchhunch1 /hʌntʃ/ noun [countable] 
ExamplesEXAMPLES FROM OTHER DICTIONARIES
Thesaurus- "How did you know the answer?" "I just had a hunch about it."
- I have a hunch that Jodie may be planning a surprise party.
- It's just a hunch, but it's possible the murderer may have been a woman.
- My hunch that he was lying turned out to be correct.
- But it is always nice to have your hunches backed up.
- His hunch had been right after all.
- I bought a kayak on a hunch.
- I didn't come up with a theory immediately, though I had hunches which were difficult to put into words.
- In 1964 he had been prepared to back his hunches.
- My hunch, though, is that it will.
- The doctors investigated their hunch by having 142 randomly selected patients fill out a questionnaire after they re-covered from their anesthesia.
Longman Language Activatora guess that is based on very little information► rough guess
Collocations the answer you give when you are trying to guess a number or amount but are not able to be exact: · I'd say Mrs Roberts was about 35, but that's only a rough guess.make/take/have a rough guess: · It's terribly difficult to calculate, but I could make a rough guess and say the cost will be about half a million.at a rough guess: · "How long will the journey take?" "At a rough guess, about six hours."
► hunch a strange feeling that you know the answer to something, even though you have very little information to help you to guess: · It's just a hunch, but it's possible the murderer may have been a woman.hunch that: · My hunch that he was lying turned out to be correct.have a hunch: · I have a hunch that Jodie may be planning a surprise party.hunch about: · "How did you know the answer?" "I just had a hunch about it."
► wild guess a guess, especially an answer, that seems stupid or is very likely to be wrong: · This is a wild guess, but is the answer Michael Jackson?
► a shot in the dark a guess that you make when you have no information at all, so that it is almost certainly wrong: · Let's see if she's at Fiona's house. It's a shot in the dark, but we've got to start looking somewhere.
COLLOCATIONS FROM OTHER ENTRIES► hunch your shoulders
if you have a hunch that something is true or will happen, you feel that it is true or will happen → suspicionhave a hunch (that) (=raise your shoulders and bend them forwards slightly)· He hunched his shoulders against the rain.
I had a hunch that something like this would happen.somebody’s hunch My hunch is that she’s his mother.hunch1 nounhunch2 verb
hunchhunch2 verb Verb TableVERB TABLE
hunch
| Simple Form | ||
| Present | I, you, we, they | hunch |
| he, she, it | hunches | |
| Past | I, you, he, she, it, we, they | hunched |
| Present perfect | I, you, we, they | have hunched |
| he, she, it | has hunched | |
| Past perfect | I, you, he, she, it, we, they | had hunched |
| Future | I, you, he, she, it, we, they | will hunch |
| Future perfect | I, you, he, she, it, we, they | will have hunched |
| Continuous Form | ||
| Present | I | am hunching |
| he, she, it | is hunching | |
| you, we, they | are hunching | |
| Past | I, he, she, it | was hunching |
| you, we, they | were hunching | |
| Present perfect | I, you, we, they | have been hunching |
| he, she, it | has been hunching | |
| Past perfect | I, you, he, she, it, we, they | had been hunching |
| Future | I, you, he, she, it, we, they | will be hunching |
| Future perfect | I, you, he, she, it, we, they | will have been hunching |
EXAMPLES FROM THE CORPUS
Collocations- His chin hung farther down on his chest as his shoulders hunched closer together.
- Seeing Michael Ryan smiling at them, they seemed to crowd together, hunching in their seats.
- The impulse to hit is curbed by hunching the shoulders.
- The molten light from the stove mottled the ceiling, dark furniture hunched away from it along the walls.
- They left off playing, let go hands and hunched forward as they left the alley and ent red the street.
COLLOCATIONS FROM OTHER ENTRIES► hunch your shoulders
Phrases (=raise your shoulders and bend them forwards slightly)· He hunched his shoulders against the rain.
COLLOCATIONS FROM THE CORPUSADVERB► down· Then the driver hunched down with a magazine, the door buzzed open and Maxim went in.· Twist some dials, and the machine trembles, two robot arms pick up soldering irons and hunch down on him.· Billy Tolboys pulled up the collar of his ancient leather overcoat and hunched down even deeper into the motorcycle sidecar.· He stood up sleek and tall, hunched down, and launched himself for a closer look-see.· But Silk was already inside, hunched down low, Uzi searching for targets.
► forward· Emily hunched forward over her handlebars, tense and determined.· Pat took off her jacket and hunched forward.· Hammond was looking down, his shoulders hunched forward, as if he knew already what was in the second file.· They left off playing, let go hands and hunched forward as they left the alley and ent red the street.· A loping gait, he thought, with something tired in the way she hunched forward.
► over· Goggled officials hunched over consoles around tiers of cantilevered wrought-iron galleries, listening to data, whispering orders.· Some extend their billed baseball caps or hunch over and have the players sign their names on the back of their shirts.· He was hunched over the car.· The way they walk around hunched over.· Then as if the whole world had hunched over to block out the sun, the sky becomes as black as coal.· Although 70 years old and permanently hunched over from osteoporosis, she was still a compact bundle of energy.· He could picture him hunched over his desk, busily writing ... for ever writing.· Roy hunches over and stares at the floor.
► up· I sit there for quite a bit, hunched up on the pavement.· My shoulders hunched up, my hands dug down into my pockets, each gesture made was grand as the movies.· The figure was hunched up on the seat, its head on the table, apparently almost sleeping.· On the way down I see a red squirrel sitting hunched up and immobile, on a maple tree.· The maids found her the next morning hunched up in the laundry cupboard on the landing, dozing lightly.· Its body is hunched up in a strange way, with its wings drooped, its feathers ruffled and its head lowered.· He stared down at the body hunched up in the bath.· He sat with his huge shoulders hunched up.
NOUN► shoulder· She could feel him hesitating, shoulders hunching with the sense of something wrong.· His chin hung farther down on his chest as his shoulders hunched closer together.· Fenn froze, shoulders hunched, until the reverberations died away.· Her shoulders are hunched, her head down as she lopes across the court.· She looked at me slouching into my chair, shoulders hunched into my body.· Alan was concentrating too, his shoulders hunched, his head moving slightly as he read.· My shoulders hunched up, my hands dug down into my pockets, each gesture made was grand as the movies.
VERB► sit· The hawks and falcons sat hunched on their perches, lost in some inner world of stoop and updraught.· So we sat hunched at our desks, blackening out the story and accompanying pictures.· He sat hunched by the stern cleat, knife ready to cut the Zodiac free.· The room is quiet, as every child sits hunched over a piece of writing.· Employees sit hunched over their screens, or chat by the coffee machine.· Now he sits hunched over on the couch, wearing a roomy black overcoat with a pack of Marlboros in one pocket.· The coachman sat hunched over the reins, waiting.
PHRASES FROM THE ENTRY► hunch your shoulders
1[intransitive always + adverb/preposition] to bend down and forwards so that your back forms a curvehunch over- Ballesteros hunched his shoulders, put his palms up in the air, and raised his dark, thick eyebrows.
- He hunched his shoulders and stamped his way defiantly down the rest of the stairs and out into the cobbled street.
- He put them on, and peered round the room, hunching his shoulders, shamming the old scholar.
- Lean away from the flexed knee and keep your guard close to your body, but avoid hunching your shoulders.
- Schmidt hunched his shoulders and gobbled like a turkey.
- Then, hunching his shoulders against the pounding rain, he lurched towards the barn.
He had to hunch over the steering wheel to see anything.2hunch your shoulders to raise your shoulders into a rounded shape because you are cold, anxious etc—hunched adjective: a hunched figure sitting by the fire