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
Recent Examples on the Web
Verb
His post-revolution testimonials provide the film with haunting commentary. Murtada Elfadl, Variety, 17 Mar. 2024 Often, this is in self-portraits, including a haunting 1941 watercolor, all in shades of blue, made by Samuel Joseph Brown Jr. Philip Kennicott, Washington Post, 15 Mar. 2024 Yeezys have gone from Adidas’s dream partnership to a financial nightmare in the last few years, and their ghost (or rather, excess stock) continues to haunt the German sports brand. Prarthana Prakash, Fortune Europe, 13 Mar. 2024 These peaceful images of rural life along with their immediate destruction haunt the Kid, whose present-day environment is defined by the grit of Yatana. Lovia Gyarkye, The Hollywood Reporter, 12 Mar. 2024 And now, the haunting building has landed on the real estate market. Tj MacIas, Sacramento Bee, 8 Mar. 2024 But so far, his tenure has been plagued by the same staffing crisis that haunted his predecessor. Rebecca Ellis, Los Angeles Times, 8 Mar. 2024 Then, before stepping inside a classroom of shocked kids who collectively gasped with shock and excitement upon her arrival, Dua confessed that one nearly 20-year-old memory still haunts her. Hannah Dailey, Billboard, 8 Mar. 2024 Jennifer Crumbley testified that her son was messing around and had an ongoing joke with his dad that the house was haunted, and that ghosts nicknamed Veronica and Boris lived there. Gina Kaufman, Detroit Free Press, 7 Mar. 2024
Noun
The no-cash, no-tipping model makes for unusually warm and easy interactions with the staff, most of them locals who readily share their favorite haunts and treat you more like a friend in their home than a guest in their service. Genevieve Ko, Travel + Leisure, 31 Jan. 2024 Although Aspen is both an all-year town, as January trudges on, Vogue has compiled our favorite local haunts and buzzy hangouts for the season. Elise Taylor, Vogue, 10 Jan. 2024 Karma, the former haunt of the Jersey Shore cast in Seaside Heights, was demolished December 27. Vulture, 29 Dec. 2023 Orlando led the effort to merge the company with Trump Media, a deal that was conceived at Trump’s favorite haunts: his opulent Palm Beach estate, Mar-a-Lago, and his exclusive golf club in Bedminster, N.J., according to a Trump Media executive now no longer with the company. Ben Wieder, Miami Herald, 24 Jan. 2024 The handsome downtown haunt serves comfort foods like meatballs, burgers, and bao buns, all made from in-season ingredients from the Rocky Mountain region. Evie Carrick, Travel + Leisure, 11 Feb. 2024 Hundreds of restaurants opened across the Valley in 2023, places new and old garnered national attention and a lineup of historic haunts are still going strong. Felicia Campbell, The Arizona Republic, 3 Jan. 2024 This weekend was Trojan Family Weekend, and Father Ferrell spent some of it revisiting old haunts. Vulture, 9 Oct. 2023 The biannual convention that celebrates and promotes anime and pop culture with dates in both summer and winter, is taking a break from its usual haunts at the Sacramento Convention Center, which is undergoing renovations. Mack Ervin Iii, Sacramento Bee, 25 Jan. 2024

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 28 Mar. 2024.

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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