haunt
verbnouncommon in dialogue
- United Kingdom//hɔːnt//
- United States//hɔnt//
- //hɑnt//
To inhabit or to visit frequently (most often used in reference to ghosts).
verb
- 1
To inhabit or to visit frequently (most often used in reference to ghosts).
A couple of ghosts haunt the old, burnt-down house.
You wrong me Sir,thus ſtill to haunt my houſe.
Foul spirits haunt my resting place.
those cares that haunt the court and town
- 2
To make uneasy, restless.
The memory of his past failures haunted him.
The murder of Déagol haunted Gollum, and he had made up a defence.
- 3
To stalk; to follow.
The policeman haunted him, following him everywhere.
Ex's and the oh-oh-oh's, they haunt me / Like ghosts, they want me / To make 'em a-a-all / They won't let go / Ex's and oh's
- 4
archaicTo live habitually; to stay, to remain.
Ieſus therfore walked no more openly amõge 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.
[…]That yonder in that faithfull wilderneſſe / Huge monſters haunt,and many dangers dwell;[…]
- 5
To accustom; habituate; make accustomed to.
[…]haunte thi silf to pite [or pitee].
- 6
To practise; to devote oneself to.
Leave honest pleasure, and haunt no good pastime.
- 7
To persist in staying or visiting.
I haue charg’d thee not to haunt about my doores:[…]
Etymology
From Middle English haunten (“to reside, inhabit, use, employ”), from Old French hanter (“to inhabit, frequent, resort to”), from Old Northern French hanter (“to go back home, frequent”), from Old Norse heimta (“to bring home, fetch”) or/and from Old English hāmettan (“to bring home; house; cohabit with”); both from Proto-Germanic *haimatjaną (“to house, bring home”), from Proto-Germanic *haimaz (“village, home”), from Proto-Indo-European *ḱóymos (“village”). Cognate with Old English hǣman (“to cohabit, lie with, marry”); related to Old English hām (“home, village”), Old French hantin (“a stay, a place frequented by”) from the same Germanic source. Another descendant from the French is Dutch hanteren, whence German hantieren, Swedish hantera, Danish håndtere. More at home.
noun
- 1
A place at which one is regularly found; a habitation or hangout.
The shopping mall is a popular haunt of the local teenagers in this town.
I went back the town I used to live and visited all my old haunts.
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.
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.
- 2
A ghost.
- 3
A lair or feeding place of animals in the wild.
The lofty mountains roſe faint to the ſight and loſt their foreheads in the diſtant ſkies: the little hills, cloathed in darker green and ſkirted with embroidered vales, diſcovered the ſecret haunts of kids and bounding roes.
Forms
- plural
- haunts
- past tense
- haunted
- past participle
- haunted
- present participle
- haunting
- third person singular
- haunts
haunt · To inhabit or to visit frequently (most often used in reference to ghosts).
haunted · Of a location, frequented by a ghost or ghosts.haunting · Remaining in the mind; not easily forgotten.Havana · The capital city of Cuba.