haunt

1 of 2

verb

ˈhȯnt How to pronounce haunt (audio)
ˈhänt
haunted; haunting; haunts

transitive verb

1
a
: to visit often : frequent
spends a lot of time haunting bookstores
b
: to continually seek the company of
haunting celebrities
impostors that haunt the official in foreign portsVan Wyck Brooks
2
a
: to have a disquieting or harmful effect on : trouble
problems we ignore now will come back to haunt us
b
: to recur constantly and spontaneously to
the tune haunted her
c
: to reappear continually in
a sense of tension that haunts his writing
3
: to visit or inhabit as a ghost
believed that the house was haunted
Spirits are supposed to haunt the places where their bodies most resorted …Charles Dickens

intransitive verb

1
: to stay around or persist : linger
a haunting fragrance
2
: to appear habitually as a ghost
not far from … where she haunted appeared for a short time a much more remarkable spiritW. B. Yeats
haunter noun
hauntingly adverb

haunt

2 of 2

noun

ˈhȯnt How to pronounce haunt (audio)
ˈhänt,
 sense 2 is usually  ˈhant
1
: a place habitually frequented
a favorite haunt of college kids
2
chiefly dialectal : ghost

Examples of haunt in a Sentence

Verb Some people believe that the ghost of an old sea captain haunts the beach. If you ignore the problem, it will come back to haunt you. Their failure to plan ahead is now coming back to haunt them. The tune haunted me all day. Noun The restaurant became one of her favorite haunts. one of their favorite after-school haunts is Joe's Pizza See More
Recent Examples on the Web
Verb
And he's haunted by a recurring dream involving a shooting at an airport. Jennifer Ouellette and Sean M. Carroll, Ars Technica, 24 Nov. 2023 The question of why Jeff Bezos, a man who can afford not to bother, wants to own the Washington Post haunts the pages of this book. Nathan Heller, The New Yorker, 21 Nov. 2023 In ‘Tedious Days and Nights,’ the Tiananmen Square massacre continues to haunt a lost generation of Chinese artists. Patrick Frater, Variety, 17 Nov. 2023 For the good of the Negro, for the good of this state, for the good of this country, do your part to rid us of these apprenticeships, to dismiss one of the last gasps of that despicable institution which has haunted this nation for centuries. Anna Deavere Smith, The Atlantic, 13 Nov. 2023 Two haunting Civil War photos of men killed in action were, in fact, the same soldier—the photographer, Alexander Gardner, had lugged the decomposing corpse from one spot to another. Daniel Immerwahr, The New Yorker, 13 Nov. 2023 As the watching crowd and the veterans waited for the royals and clergy to join them on Whitehall, the military band played a series of traditional tunes including the haunting Nimrod from by Elgar's Variations. Simon Perry, Peoplemag, 12 Nov. 2023 There was laughter, honesty, and even a couple surprise performances, including a haunting solo-piano version of a Gucci Mane hit. Rolling Stone, 11 Nov. 2023 The chorus attacked its narrative role (and its several haunting stretches of a cappella singing) with crisp, consonant authority. Michael Andor Brodeur, Washington Post, 9 Nov. 2023
Noun
Back in the earliest days of 2020, just a month or two before the Covid-19 pandemic threw the entire world into chaos, Julia Roberts paid $8.3 million for a house in San Francisco, long one of her favorite haunts. James McClain, Robb Report, 10 Nov. 2023 This might sound like the kind of place nobody would ever want to be in, but every year millions of people pay to visit haunts just like Dystopia. Athena Aktipis, Scientific American, 1 Nov. 2023 Some states weren’t perceived as so scary, with low interest surrounding the destinations’ haunts. Sam Burros, Peoplemag, 21 Oct. 2023 Virden’s team believes a barn closely positioned next to a silo was likely a favored haunt of Rader. Lauren Del Valle, CNN, 2 Sep. 2023 Snagging a reservation at this ten-table haunt is next to impossible; visitors should attempt to book a table six or more months out to increase their chances. Lauren Dana Ellman, Travel + Leisure, 21 Oct. 2023 Guests are admitted by party, which reduces the conga line effect of so many large haunts, and there are even a couple of moments in the maze, wherein scary characters use narrative tricks to make sure there is adequate spacing, so everyone gets scared right and proper. Scott Feinblatt, Los Angeles Times, 18 Oct. 2023 But Ward’s daily life does not consist of rubbing elbows with the literati in their New York haunts. Imani Perry, New York Times, 13 Oct. 2023 As part of the campaign, Youkilis published several photos of iconic Florentine haunts and traditions—but one Instagram carousel particularly resonated with viewers. Annachiara Barretto-Grignoli, Vogue, 28 Sep. 2023 See More

These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'haunt.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

Word History

Etymology

Verb

Middle English haunten, hanten "to frequent, frequent the company of, dwell in, engage in, practice (a vice or virtue), perform," borrowed from Anglo-French hanter, haunter (also continental Old French), of uncertain origin

Note: The origin of the French word has been much argued over in the past century and a half. Given the initial h aspiré (meaning the initial h was pronounced into early modern French and still blocks elision of preceding vowels), the word has usually been given a Germanic source. Perhaps most frequently it has been traced to the Old Norse verb reflected in Old Icelandic heimta "to draw, pull, call on, claim, crave, get back, recover," despite semantic and phonetic objections. Also proffered has been a presumed Old Low Franconian *haimiþōn "to shelter, accommodate." Both etyma are derivatives of Germanic *haima- "dwelling" (see home entry 1). The possibility of a spoken Latin source has been revived in Dictionnaire étymologique de l'ancien français (on line), which suggests *ambitāre, from Latin ambitus "circuit" (see ambit)—see full discussion and bibliography there.

Noun

Middle English haunt, hant "frequent visiting, resort, a place frequented, habitual practice of something, usage," borrowed from Anglo-French hant, haunt, derivative of hanter "to frequent, haunt entry 1"

First Known Use

Verb

14th century, in the meaning defined at transitive sense 1a

Noun

14th century, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Time Traveler
The first known use of haunt was in the 14th century

Dictionary Entries Near haunt

Cite this Entry

“Haunt.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/haunt. Accessed 3 Dec. 2023.

Kids Definition

haunt

1 of 2 verb
ˈhȯnt How to pronounce haunt (audio)
ˈhänt
1
: to visit often : frequent
they haunted the antique shops
2
a
: to have a disturbing or harmful effect on
problems we ignore now will come back to haunt us
b
: to come back to the mind of again and again
the song haunted me all day
3
: to visit or live in as a ghost
spirits haunted the house
haunter noun
hauntingly adverb

haunt

2 of 2 noun
ˈhȯnt How to pronounce haunt (audio)
ˈhänt
: a place repeatedly visited

More from Merriam-Webster on haunt

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