hankering
hankering is the present participle and gerund of hanker.
Meaning of hanker
Verb
hanker (third-person singular simple present hankers, present participle hankering, simple past and past participle hankered)
Noun
hankering (plural hankerings)
- A strong, restless desire, longing, or mental inclination.
- I found that he had dipped a little in chimerical studies and had a hankering after astrology and alchymy.1840, Washington Irving, The Knight of Malta
- Mr. Hall thinks he has no personal hatred of Moore; he says he even likes to talk to him, and run after him, but he has a hankering that he should be made an example of.1849, Currer Bell [pseudonym; Charlotte Brontë], “Levitical”, in Shirley. A Tale. […], volume I, London: Smith, Elder and Co., […], →OCLC, page 17
- Synonyms:
- craving
Synonyms of hankering
Forms of hankering
| plural | hankerings |
|---|
Words formed from hankering
Questions about hankering
- What does hankering mean?
- Hankering means a strong, restless desire, longing, or mental inclination.
- What is hankering the present participle and gerund of?
- Hankering is the present participle and gerund of hanker.
- What part of speech is hankering?
- Hankering is a noun.
- What is the plural of hankering?
- The plural of hankering is hankerings.
Words near hankering in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: hankering (page history and authors); hanker (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
Last updated:
Cite this entry: “hankering.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/hankering. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.