hunker

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“
In tough economic times you kind of hunker down and close up.

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Definitions (7)

Toggle American Heritage definitions American Heritage Dictionary (4)

  1. intransitive verb To squat close to the ground; crouch. Usually used with down: hunkered down to avoid the icy wind.
  2. intransitive verb To take shelter, settle in, or hide out. Usually used with down: hunkered down in the cabin during the blizzard.
  3. intransitive verb To hold stubbornly to a position. Usually used with down: "As the White House hunkered down, G.O.P. congressional unity started crumbling” (Time).
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Examples (50)

  • In fact, you might be better off buying an old hunker, and building a basement suite as a mortgage helper. —  All Today's News - Sightline Daily
  • "The decline in the number of customers shopping and switching insurance providers may in part be due to the current economic situation, as many customers are employing a hunker-down mentality," Jeremy Bowler, senior director of the insurance practice at J.D. Power and Associates.
  • The natural reaction for any business is to hunker down during a recession-to focus on cutting unnecessary costs and running lean, and to make survival the only objective. —  Rfidjournal.com NEWS RSS Feed
  • Competitors will hunker down, effectively stopping their innovation and standing still, shivering in the economic cold. —  Rfidjournal.com NEWS RSS Feed
  • Well luckily for me I had packed my blanket, so I set off to find a remote parking lot where I could hunker down for the night without being disturbed, run over, or flooded in. —  News & Features from Minnesota Public Radio
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Roget's II Roget's II: The New Thesaurus

Allen's Allen's Synonyms and Antonyms

Used in the same contextWord Family

hunker:   Hunker
Roget's II: The New Thesaurus, Third Edition by the Editors of the American Heritage® Dictionary. Copyright © 2003, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

Etymologies (2)

Toggle American Heritage etymologies American Heritage Dictionary (1)

  1. Perhaps of Scandinavian origin; akin to Old Norse hokra, to crouch.

Toggle Century etymologies Century Dictionary (1)

  1. Prob. a nasalized form of Icelandic hokra, crouch, creep, hūka, sit on one's hams: a verb represented in English by hug, orig. crouch, and huckster, etc.: see hug, huckster, huckle, etc.
 

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/ˈhəŋkər/
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