different between hunchback vs hunch

English

Etymology

Back-formation from hunchbacked.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?h?nt?bæk/

Noun

hunchback (plural hunchbacks)

1. One who is stooped or hunched over.
2. A deformed upper spinal column in the shape of a hump in the back.
3. (derogatory) A person with kyphosis, a spinal deformity that causes a hunched over appearance.

Synonyms

• humpback
• stooped

Derived terms

• hunchbacked

Translations

English

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.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /h?nt?/, /h?n?/
• Rhymes: -?nt?

Noun

hunch (plural hunches)

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.

Synonyms

• (guess): hint, clue, inkling

Translations

Verb

hunch (third-person singular simple present hunches, present participle hunching, simple past and past participle hunched)

1. (intransitive) To bend the top of one's body forward while raising one's shoulders.

   Synonyms: slouch, stoop, lean

   • 1961, Muriel Spark, The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie, New York: HarperPerenniel, 1994, Chapter 5, p. 156,^[2]

     Sandy, you will never get anywhere by hunching over your putter, hold your shoulders back and bend from the waist.

   • 1978, Armistead Maupin, Tales of the City, New York: Ballantine Books, “… and many happy returns,” p. 76,^[3]

     She rolled over and hunched into a fetal position.

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).
   • 1672, Edward Ravenscroft, The Citizen Turn’d Gentleman, London: Thomas Dring, Act I, Scene 1, p. 4,^[4]

     Danc[ing] Mast[er]. […] not too fast […] keep you[r] leg[s] straight, […] don’t hunch up your shoulders so;

   • 1924, Ford Madox Ford, Some Do Not ..., New York: Grosset & Dunlap, Part 2, Chapter 2,^[5]

     If you hunch your shoulders too long against a storm your shoulders will grow bowed....

   • 1938, Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings, New York: Scribner, Chapter 17,^[6]

     He would hunch his twisted body close and put out his gentle and crooked hand and touch the fawn.

   • 1939, John Steinbeck, The Grapes of Wrath, New York: Viking, 1958, Chapter 10, p. 142,^[7]

     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.

3. (intransitive) To walk (somewhere) while hunching one's shoulders.

   Synonym: slouch

   • 1955, J. P. Donleavy, The Ginger Man, New York: Dell, Chapter 2, p. 9,^[8]

     […] the figure hunched up the road.

   • 1969, Ray Bradbury, “The Inspired Chicken Motel” in I Sing the Body Electric, New York: Knopf, p. 57,^[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.

   • 1983, Jack Vance, Suldrun’s Garden, Spatterlight Press, 2012, Chapter 18,^[10]

     […] wheezing and grunting he hunched across the room.

4. (transitive) To thrust a hump or protuberance out of (something); to crook, as the back.
   • 1679, John Dryden and Nathaniel Lee, Oedipus, London: R. Bentley and M. Magnes, Act I, p. 6,^[11]

     […] 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:

5. (transitive) To push or jostle with the elbow; to push or thrust against (someone).

   Synonyms: elbow, nudge

   • 1667, Roger L’Estrange (translator), The Visions of Dom Francisco de Quevedo Villegas, London: H. Herringman, “The Sixth Vision of Hell,” pp. 182-183,^[12]

     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.

   • 1748, Samuel Richardson, Clarissa, London: for the author, Volume 2, Letter 1, p. 8,^[13]

     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.

   • 1899, Sutton E. Griggs, Imperium in Imperio, Chapter 6,^[14]

     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.

   • 1974, Maya Angelou, Gather Together in My Name, New York: Bantam, 1975, Chapter 12, p. 40,^[15]

     She hunched me and winked.

   • 1986, Billy Roche, Tumbling Down, Dublin: Wolfhound Press, 1994, Chapter 6, pp. 102-103,^[16]

     […] 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.

6. (intransitive, colloquial) To have a hunch, or make an intuitive guess.

Translations

Derived terms

• hunchback (noun)
• play a hunch, play one's hunch, follow one's hunch

Anagrams

• Chhun