hanker

verb

han·​ker ˈhaŋ-kər 

hankered; hankering ˈhaŋ-k(ə-)riŋ 

intransitive verb

: to have a strong or persistent desire : yearn

—often used with for or after

hankerer

ˈhaŋ-kər-ər 

noun

Synonyms

• ache (for)
• covet
• crave
• desiderate
• desire
• die (for)
• hunger (for)
• itch (for)
• jones (for) [slang]
• long (for)
• lust (for or after)
• pant (after)
• pine (for)
• repine (for)
• salivate (for)
• sigh (for)
• thirst (for)
• want
• wish (for)
• yearn (for)
• yen (for)

Choose the Right Synonym for hanker

long, yearn, hanker, pine, hunger, thirst mean to have a strong desire for something.

long implies a wishing with one's whole heart and often a striving to attain.

longed for some rest

yearn suggests an eager, restless, or painful longing.

yearned for a stage career

hanker suggests the uneasy promptings of unsatisfied appetite or desire.

always hankering for money

pine implies a languishing or a fruitless longing for what is impossible.

pined for a lost love

hunger and thirst imply an insistent or impatient craving or a compelling need.

hungered for a business of his own

thirsted for power

Examples of hanker in a Sentence

By the middle of the winter, they were hankering for a warm day.

Recent Examples on the Web

Americans were stuck at home, hankering for more space — and had the extra cash to buy their first homes or upgrade to larger ones. —Abha Bhattarai, Washington Post, 16 Mar. 2024

Gad is approaching that hankering for new things with humor and heart, and in a way that finds middle ground for kids and their parents and guardians. —Carly Tagen-Dye, Peoplemag, 27 Mar. 2024

Southeast Asian ministers aren’t the only ones to be hankering after a piece of the billion-dollar tour. —Eleanor Pringle, Fortune, 5 Mar. 2024

Dungy and Rush explicitly critique patriarchal patterns in the literary canon of nature writing, a genre long dominated by solitary white men of privilege hankering for escape or reverie in the wild. —Emily Raboteau, The New York Review of Books, 1 Nov. 2020

Has there been a classic Sondheim role he’s been hankering to do? —Charles McNulty, Los Angeles Times, 11 Dec. 2023

Maybe so, judging by New Yorkers’ sudden hankering to come together to craft. —Arden Fanning Andrews, Vogue, 7 Dec. 2023

If the first half of Pokémon Scarlet and Violet’s Hidden Treasures of Area Zero DLC felt a little short and left you hankering for more ninth-generation adventures, worry not, because the second half is just a few short weeks away. —Charles Pulliam-Moore, The Verge, 2 Nov. 2023

Perhaps viewers are hankering for shows tinged with escapism and warmth this summer, to counteract all those heavy news cycles. —Matthew Gilbert, BostonGlobe.com, 1 Sep. 2023

Word History

Etymology

probably from Dutch dialect hankeren

First Known Use

1627, in the meaning defined above

Kids Definition

hanker

verb

han·​ker ˈhaŋ-kər 

hankered; hankering -k(ə-)riŋ 

: to have an eager or continual desire

hanker after fame

hankerer

-kər-ər 

noun