Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. The hip, buttock, and upper thigh in humans and animals.
- n. The loin and leg of a four-footed animal, especially as used for food: a haunch of venison.
- n. Architecture Either of the sides of an arch, curving down from the apex to an impost.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. The fleshy part of the body, in men and quadrupeds, above the thigh, pertaining to each hipjoint and wing of the pelvis; the hip: as, a haunch of venison; the haunches of a horse.
- n. The coxa or basal joint of the legs in insects and spiders.
- n. The rear; the hind part.
- n. The jamb or upright post of a door. See jamb.
- n. In architecture, the middle part between the vertex or crown and the springing of an arch — sometimes used to include the spandrel or part of it; the flank. Also haunching.
- To throw, as a stone, from the hand by jerking it against the haunch.
Wiktionary
- n. anatomy The area encompassing the upper thigh, hip and buttocks on one side of a human, primate, or quadruped animal, especially one that is able to sit on its hindquarters.
- n. The loin and leg of a quadruped, especially when used as food.
- n. architecture A squat vertical support structure.
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. The hip; the projecting region of the lateral parts of the pelvis and the hip joint; the hind part.
- n. Of meats: The leg and loin taken together.
WordNet 3.0
- n. the hip and buttock and upper thigh in human beings
- n. the loin and leg of a quadruped
Etymologies
- From Middle English, from Old French, from a Germanic source, probably Frankish. (Wiktionary)
- Middle English haunche, from Old French hanche, from Frankish *hanka. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“Considering she called me “Hyatt” when she phoned with the appointment time, my haunch is my name got messed up on the file, which subsequently was misfiled – another insignificant medical error.”
“The hip bones are large, irregularly shaped bones, very firm and strong, and are sometimes called the haunch bones or _ossa innominata_”
“The lettering in this figure is as follows: -- T, tenons; the small piece of the tenon lettered J is called the haunch, and the shaded portion H is cut away to allow the haunch J to fit the haunching of the stile.”
Woodwork Joints How they are Set Out, How Made and Where Used.
“The short portion (A) which is left on the tenon is called the haunch, and the cavity it engages is termed the haunching.”
Woodwork Joints How they are Set Out, How Made and Where Used.
“The haunch is the prime joint, its perfection depending on the greater or less depth of the fat on it.”
“Two old women were cutting meat off the haunch, meaning to dry it, and two young men, probably the ones who had stolen the horses, had caught another and were preparing to cut its throat.”
Lonesome Dove
“Bring up the little bag with the tea and a kettle of water," he called the next instant to his boatmen; "not forgetting the haunch of cariboo and the mixing-pan.”
“Curiously, in Dreams, Obama also remembers seeing a boy sitting “on the back of a dumb-faced water buffalo, whipping its haunch with a stick of bamboo.””
“We'd seen the bike last week at the neighbor's, where it rested on its kick stand and all but swung its haunch in hipness.”
“Test for doneness by sticking an instant read thermometer into the thickest part of a rear haunch. 140 degrees is ideal if you like your pork medium-well and juicy.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘haunch’.
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Words from Blood Meridian
visage, affray, scullery, miasma, mirth, purlieu, tacit, benighted, wickiup, corral, amble, accoutre and 210 more...
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Words with 'aunch' in them.
For some reason this combination has always appealed to me; sometimes to the point of altering words to make them.
launch, staunch, paunch, craunch, haunch, aunchient, traunch, raunchy, launcheon, raunch, paunchy, faunch and 17 more...
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HH
Very familiar names, compound words and phrases containing HH or H H
rough hewn, heinrich himmler, high hopes, match head, seventh heaven, bosch, hieronymus, faith hill, rush hour, cornish hen, hash house, faith healer, hush hush and 62 more...
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Just 'cause I like 'em, H
hurlyburly, hurtle, hodgepodge, heartwood, hatch, halo, hooptedoodle, hacienda, hairpin, heyday, hardscrabble, hopper and 208 more...
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Papageno's Words, Pt. I
hobbledehoy, absquatulate, chthonic, prolix, ululate, internecine, verisimilitude, animadversion, concupiscence, vertiginous, cucullate, lucubrate and 1554 more...
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5-0
Hecko, words! I’m so happy I’ve found you. I want to keep you all and never want to lose you again. I hope you like it here.
amscray, thistledown, tine, tinsel, pungent, snarl, wail, lanky, viscid, dawdle, luminous, stow and 2719 more...
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random
words I read but don't know
nascent, proxy, desultory, charlatan, churlish, emaciated, gaudy, shill, lurid, frisson, marauding, plunder and 610 more...
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Anatomy
Words pertaining to the human body, its form, functions, and movements.
rump, axilla, nates, wick, dorsal, shank, coccyx, iliac, haunch, oculate, priapic, tumescent and 9 more...
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Generally Enjoyable
supercilious, facetious, crump, upchuck, zizz, soma, proprioception, solipsism, autochthonous, notwithstanding, kinesthetic, cocentric and 31 more...
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"The Innocents" Screenplay
bedraggled, parson, ward, brusquely, indignant, dappled, alight, folly, wisp, emanate, hearth, scone and 19 more...
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Hate
Words that sound or look ugly- words that offend the senses.
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phone
Tweets
Looking for tweets for haunch.
bilby
The fog comes
on little cat feet.
It sits looking
over harbor and city
on silent haunches
and then, moves on.
- Carl Sandburg, 'Fog'. Nov 3, 2008