to hunker down
16
7.5
- phrasal verb
- /ˈhʌŋkər daʊn/
:
refugiarse
- "Maybe you better hunker down behind something at first, Peter."
- just hunker down
- stay hunkered down
- hunker down and wait
When you are down, just hunker down and know that the next beat is going to be up.
- When you are down, just hunker down and know that the next beat is going to be up.
- And they're just hunkered down holding this, manning this damn post, right?
- So all that's left to do now is to set it all up and hunker down.
- So you even more so you hunkered down and devoured everything from watching films, screenplays?
- And so we really hunkered down, you know, like I was, I was living on Taco Bell and peanut butter and Jelly and Top Ramen.
- So these guys are doing sessions and they're, you know, they're hunkering down and, you know, they don't care who you are.
- They, they hunker down and they just want that situation to go away.
- But for us, we have had a couple of all those conversations, but the stimulus help people to kind of hunker down and and stay where they were at for us here.
Examples
-
So let's hunker down and get right into it.
-
During the storm, many families hunkered down in their basements to stay safe.
-
So a lot of people just hunkered down in their places.
-
They, they hunker down and they just want that situation to go away.
-
In the day, you hunkered down, made as little noise as possible.
-
And Lucy was already here, hunkered down with her dogs.
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The group dried off at his house and hunkered down there for two hours.
Blog text (4) -
On nights like those, if you know what's good for you, you hunker down and you hide.
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People are hunkered down, they're very worried about this thing.
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They're telling people to find some place safe - and hunker down.
Synonyms
69
3.4
To move to a place that protects you from danger or bad weather
15
1.6
Remain inside a building to avoid bad weather or danger
6
8.2
Prepare for trouble by taking steps to stay safe
1
7.3
An animal taking shelter in a safe place to sleep through winter
1
5.8
To stay in a safe place to avoid danger
Antonyms
344
4.1
To move people out of a place because it is dangerous, for example during a fire
How Prepared
1
5.8
16
7.5
122
1.0
69
3.4
- Informal
133
2.0
Surface Forms
Morphology
hunker + down
The verb 'hunker' (to squat or crouch) combined with 'down' yields a clear physical image of lowering oneself, and the MWE's sense of taking shelter or settling in is a metaphorical extension of that image. Because the figurative 'take shelter/prepare' meaning relies on this metaphor and 'hunker' is relatively low-frequency, the relation is partially transparent but not fully predictable to a B1 learner.
Etymology
Hunker down comes from the image of crouching low and staying inside to be safe, like people sheltering in a basement during a storm. That's why it means 'to take shelter, settle in, or stay in one place during a difficult time'.