to hanker
5
7.4
- verb
- /ˈhæŋkər/
:
anhelar
- After a long day, she found herself hankering for her favorite chocolate cake.
They're just reflections of the true world that we're all in some way hankering to get back to.
- They're just reflections of the true world that we're all in some way hankering to get back to.
Examples
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She had always, secretly, hankered after a Knight in Shining Armor.
Fiction book (1995) -
If you're hankering for trouble, it ain't scarce right here in these mountains.
-
Sometimes they just hanker for a little competition.
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Why should you hanker after other people?
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Still hankering after the past, I see.
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I'm hankering for a dance.
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I've always hankered for something on the water.
-
I seem to remember a man hankering for some old-time activity.
-
The broad street of Yeoville was so full of people, some meandering aimlessly, that Nothando secretly hankered for the return of influx control.
Fiction book (1996) -
Then I finally got what I'd been hankering after for twenty-two years—she and I in a red-hot affair—and it wasn't what I expected at all.
Fiction book (1995)
Synonyms
446
1.6
To want something very much
114
4.5
To want something very much and keep wanting it
103
3.8
To want something very much
92
4.9
To want something very much when you cannot have it
39
6.7
To want something very much, especially something someone else has
30
6.3
To want something very strongly, often something forbidden
17
6.7
To feel very sad and want someone or something a lot
8
5.2
To have a strong wish for something
3
6.2
To want something very strongly, especially power or fame
To want someone or something very much
To have a strong desire for something you want a lot
How Desirous
Surface Forms
Etymology
Hanker comes from an old word meaning 'to long for'. A helpful way to remember it is to imagine a wish that 'hangs' on you and will not go away, so to hanker is to keep wanting something strongly.