hunch

Etymology

Assibilated variant of hunk, of uncertain origin. Alternatively, a derivative of hump, via an earlier Middle English *hunche, *humpchin, from *hump + -chin, -chen (diminutive suffix), 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.

noun

1. A hump; a protuberance.
2. A stooped or curled posture; a slouch.
   The old man walked with a hunch.
3. A theory, idea, or guess; an intuitive impression that something will happen.
   I have a hunch they'll find a way to solve the problem.
4. A hunk; a lump; a thick piece.
   a hunch of bread
5. A push or thrust, as with the elbow.

verb

1. (intransitive) To bend the top of one's body forward while raising one's shoulders.
   Don't hunch over your computer if you want to avoid neck problems.
   Sandy, you will never get anywhere by hunching over your putter, hold your shoulders back and bend from the waist. 1961, Muriel Spark, chapter 5, in The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie, New York: HarperPerenniel, published 1994, page 156
   She rolled over and hunched into a fetal position. 1978, Armistead Maupin, “… and many happy returns”, in Tales of the City, New York: Ballantine Books, page 76
2. (transitive) 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).
   They stood outside the door hunching themselves against the rain and puffing on their cigarettes.
   He hunched up his shoulders and stared down at the ground.
   Danc[ing] Mast[er]. […] not too fast […] keep you[r] leg[s] straight, […] don’t hunch up your shoulders so; 1672, Edward Ravenscroft, The Citizen Turn’d Gentleman, London: Thomas Dring, act I, scene 1, page 4
   If you hunch your shoulders too long against a storm your shoulders will grow bowed.... 1924, Ford Madox Ford, Some Do Not ..., New York: Grosset & Dunlap, Part 2, Chapter 2
   1938, Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings, New York: Scribner, Chapter 17, He would hunch his twisted body close and put out his gentle and crooked hand and touch the fawn.
   They sat looking out at the dark, at the square of light the kitchen lantern threw on the ground outside the door, with a hunched shadow of Grampa in the middle of it. 1939, John Steinbeck, chapter 10, in The Grapes of Wrath, New York: Viking, published 1958, page 142
3. (intransitive) To walk (somewhere) while hunching one's shoulders.
   […] the figure hunched up the road. 1955, J. P. Donleavy, chapter 2, in The Ginger Man, New York: Dell, page 9
   […] once we had hunched in out of the sun and slunk through a cold pork-and-beans-on-bread lunch […] my brother and I found a desert creek nearby and heaved rocks at each other to cool off. 1969, Ray Bradbury, “The Inspired Chicken Motel”, in I Sing the Body Electric, New York: Knopf, page 57
   1983, Jack Vance, Suldrun’s Garden, Spatterlight Press, 2012, Chapter 18, […] wheezing and grunting he hunched across the room.
4. (transitive) To thrust a hump or protuberance out of (something); to crook, as the back.
   […] thou art all one errour; soul and body. The first young tryal of some unskill’d Pow’r; Rude in the making Art, and Ape of Jove. Thy crooked mind within hunch’d out thy back; And wander’d in thy limbs: 1679, John Dryden, Nathaniel Lee, Oedipus, London: R. Bentley and M. Magnes, act I, page 6
5. (transitive) To push or jostle with the elbow; to push or thrust against (someone).
   After this, we saw a great Troop of Women upon the High-way to Hell, with their Bags; and their fellows, at their Heels, ever, and anon, hunching, and Justling one Another. 1667, “The Sixth Vision of Hell”, in Roger L’Estrange, transl., The Visions of Dom Francisco de Quevedo Villegas, London: H. Herringman, pages 182–183
   Hickman, a great over-grown, lank-hair’d, chubby boy, who would be hunch’d and punch’d by every-body; and go home, with his finger in his eye, and tell his mother. 1748, Samuel Richardson, Clarissa, London, Volume 2, Letter 1, p. 8
   He let his eyes scan the faces of all the white teachers, male and female, but would end up with a stare at the colored man sitting there. Finally, he hunched his seat-mate with his elbow and asked what man that was. 1899, Sutton E. Griggs, chapter 6, in Imperium in Imperio
   She hunched me and winked. 1974, Maya Angelou, chapter 12, in Gather Together in My Name, New York: Bantam, published 1975, page 40
   […] Crunch burst through, pretending to be in Croke Park or somewhere, hunching me away with his shoulder and holding the ghost of other players at bay as he picked up the football. 1986, Billy Roche, chapter 6, in Tumbling Down, Dublin: Wolfhound Press, published 1994, pages 102–103
6. (intransitive, colloquial) To have a hunch, or make an intuitive guess.
   People who are instinctive hunchers go through some such process at every decision-making point of their lives. It is likely that children often make decisions and discern truths by hunching. 2010, Max Gunther, The Luck Factor