Hunch

[huhnch] /hʌntʃ/

verb (used with object)
1.
to thrust out or up in a hump; arch:
to hunch one’s back.
2.
to shove, push, or jostle.
verb (used without object)
3.
to thrust oneself forward jerkily; lunge forward.
4.
to stand, sit, or walk in a bent posture.
noun
5.
a premonition or suspicion; guess:
I have a hunch he’ll run for reelection.
6.
a hump.
7.
a push or shove.
8.
a lump or thick piece.
/hʌntʃ/
noun
1.
an intuitive guess or feeling
2.
another word for hump
3.
a lump or large piece
verb
4.
to bend or draw (oneself or a part of the body) up or together
5.
(intransitive) usually foll by up. to sit in a hunched position

originally (c.1500) a verb, “to push, thrust,” of unknown origin. Meaning “raise or bend into a hump” is 1670s. Perhaps a variant of bunch. The noun is attested from 1620s, originally “a push, thrust.” Figurative sense of “hint, tip” (a “push” toward a solution or answer), first recorded 1849, led to that of “premonition, presentiment” (1904).

modifier

: This was too good a hunch play to let drop

noun

An intuitive premonition; a shrewd idea or notion: I gotta hunch she won’t come back

verb

: As I hunch it, the answer is triple

[1904+; said to be fr a gamblers’ belief that touching a hunchback’s hump would bring good luck]