Haunt

Pronunciation

• enPR: hônt, IPA: /hɔːnt/
• Rhymes: -ɔːnt
• (some accents) enPR: hänt, IPA: /hɑːnt/

• Rhymes: -ɑːnt
• (some accents for noun definition #2) enPR: hănt, IPA: /hænt/
• Rhymes: -ænt

Alternative forms

• hant Scotland

Origin

From Middle English haunten ("to reside, inhabit, use, employ"), from Old French hanter ("to inhabit, frequent, resort to"), of origin, probably through Gothic * (haimatjan, "to lead home"), from Proto-Germanic *haimatjaną ("to house, bring home"), from Proto-Germanic *haimaz ("village, home"), from Proto-Indo-European *kōim- ("village"). Cognate with Old English hāmettan ("to provide housing to, bring home"), Old Norse heimta ("to bring home, fetch") (Swedish hämta); related to Old English hām ("home, village"), Old French hantin ("a stay, a place frequented by") from the same Germanic source. More at home.

Full definition of haunt

Verb

1. (transitive) To inhabit, or visit frequently (most often used in reference to ghosts).A couple of ghosts haunt the old, burnt-down house.
• ShakespeareYou wrong me, sir, thus still to haunt my house.
• Jonathan Swiftthose cares that haunt the court and town
• FairfaxFoul spirits haunt my resting place.
2. (transitive) To make uneasy, restless.The memory of his past failures haunted him.
3. (transitive) To stalk, to followThe policeman haunted him, following him everywhere.
4. (intransitive, now rare) To live habitually; to stay, to remain.
• 1526, William Tyndale, trans. Bible, John XI:Jesus therfore walked no more openly amonge the iewes: butt went his waye thence vnto a countre ny to a wildernes into a cite called effraym, and there haunted with his disciples.
• 1590, Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene, III.x:yonder in that wastefull wildernesse
  Huge monsters haunt, and many dangers dwell ...
5. (transitive, UK dialectal, Northern England, Scotland) To accustom; habituate; make accustomed to.
• WyclifHaunt thyself to pity.
6. (transitive, UK dialectal, Northern England, Scotland) To practise; to devote oneself to.
• AschamLeave honest pleasure, and haunt no good pastime.
7. (intransitive) To persist in staying or visiting.
• ShakespeareI've charged thee not to haunt about my doors.

Noun

1. A place at which one is regularly found; a hangout.
• 1819, s:Author:Washington Irving, s:The Sketchbook of Geoffrey Crayon, It is a great rock or cliff on the loneliest part of the mountains, and, … is known by the name of the Garden Rock. Near the foot of it is a small lake, the haunt of the solitary bittern, with water-snakes basking in the sun on the leaves of the pond-lilies which lie on the surface.
• 1868, Louisa May Alcott, "Kitty's Class Day":Both Jack and Fletcher had graduated the year before, but still took an interest in their old haunts, and patronized the fellows who were not yet through.
• 1984, Timothy Loughran and Natalie Angier, "Science: Striking It Rich in Wyoming," Time, 8 Oct.:Wyoming has been a favorite haunt of paleontologists for the past century ever since westering pioneers reported that many vertebrate fossils were almost lying on the ground.
2. (dialect) A ghost.
• 1891, Mary Noailles Murfree, In the "Stranger People's" Country, Nebraska 2005, p. 93:‘Harnts don't wander much ginerally,’ he said. ‘They hand round thar own buryin'-groun' mainly.’
3. A feeding place for animals.Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., 1989.

Anagrams

• Utahn