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hunker down love

hunker down

Definitions

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • verb to crouch or squat; to sit on one's haunches.
  • verb to settle in at a location for an extended period; -- also (figuratively) to maintain a position and resist yielding to some pressure, as of public opinion.
  • verb to take shelter, literally or figuratively; to assume a defensive position to resist difficulties.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • verb idiomatic To take shelter; to prepare oneself for some eventuality; to focus on a task.
  • verb idiomatic To stubbornly hold to a position.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • verb take shelter
  • verb hold stubbornly to a position
  • verb sit on one's heels

Etymologies

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Examples

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hypernyms (8)

Words that are more generic or abstract

  1. hide
  2. hideout
  3. hold firm
  4. sit
  5. sit down
  6. stand fast
  7. stand firm
  8. stand pat

cross-references (2)

Cross-references

  1. buckle down
  2. knuckle down

Comments

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  • sonofgroucho commented on the word hunker down

    Does anyone ever hunker up?

    November 2, 2007

  • reesetee commented on the word hunker down

    Who would want to?

    November 2, 2007

  • mollusque commented on the word hunker down

    "It was open, so we had to hunker up against the side of the house and keep real quiet.

    --Ralph Moody, 1991, Little Britches: Father and I Were Ranchers, p. 122

    July 27, 2009

  • rolig commented on the word hunker down

    Molly, surely here "up" is not part of the verb, but rather is part of the prepositional unit "up against".

    July 27, 2009

  • qroqqa commented on the word hunker down

    I suspect it can go either way. Look at a clear example where the two prepositions are in the same PP: We pushed the furniture up against the wall. (There's no verb complex 'push up' with this sense.) The PP can only be fronted as a whole:

    Up against the wall we pushed the furniture.

    * Against the wall we pushed the furniture up.

    Now compare 'prop up' + 'against':

    ? Up against the wall we propped the ladder.

    Against the wall we propped the ladder up.

    Both work for 'hunker up', for me. There's also a pronunciation test that shows both possibilities. Intransitive prepositions (such as particles) take a separate accent:

    This is the \chimney that I put it up.

    This is the \/office where I picked it \up.

    This is the \wall where I hunkered up.

    This is the \/wall where I hunkered \up.

    July 27, 2009