Hanker

//ˈhæŋkə(ɹ)// verb

verb ·Uncommon ·Advanced level

Definitions

Verb
  1. 1
    To crave, want or desire.

    "If you hanker for chocolate, you'll like this fudge recipe."

  2. 2
    desire strongly or persistently wordnet

Synonyms

All synonyms
achecovetcovetcravedesiredream

Example

More examples

"I never hanker for a cheeseburger."

Etymology

With a secondary frequentative suffix -er, ultimately pointing to Proto-Germanic *hankōną, an iterative to *hanhaną (“to hang”). Related to Dutch hunkeren (“to crave”), which continues the zero-grade iterative.

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.