hunker
/ˈhʌŋkə
/verb
1 [no object] Squat or crouch down low: he hunkered down beside her...
- The stench of sulfur filled the air as I dragged myself across the scree and hunkered behind a dark boulder.
- I stay hunkered behind the teacher's desk, next to an open window.
- I hunkered lower down in my seat and tried to pretend that I couldn't speak English.
1.1Bend the top of one’s body forward; hunch: she hunkered over the heater...
- Flash forward three years, and she is hunkering down over coffee to talk about her life and the theatre, once again.
- One cold day, I hunkered over some on a park bench.
- As they spend more time hunkered over their computers, they neglect family, friends and jobs.
2 (hunker down) Apply oneself seriously to a task: students hunkered down to prepare for the examinations...
- I then hunkered down and got real serious, knowing I was going to have to fly the best instrument approach of my life.
- The precious dialogue is sometimes muffled, so that I had to back up a few times and hunker down for serious lip reading.
- If you are ready to hunker down and get serious, this one's not worth it.
Origin
Early 18th century: probably related to Dutch huiken and German hocken.
Rhymes
- funding agency
- funding body
- fund manager
- fundraise
- fundraiser
- fundraising
- fundus
- Fundy, Bay of
- funebrial
- funeral
- funeral chapel
- funeral director
- funeral home
- funeral parlour
- funeral pile
- funeral plan
- funeral procession
- funeral pyre
- funeral service
- funeral urn
- funerary
- funereal
- funereally
- funfair
- fun-filled