haunt
/hɔːnt/US/hɔnt/
haunt verb: to inhabit or to visit frequently (most often used in reference to ghosts).
Verb
haunt (third-person singular simple present haunts, present participle haunting, simple past and past participle haunted)
- To inhabit or to visit frequently (most often used in reference to ghosts).
- A couple of ghosts haunt the old, burnt-down house.
- You wrong me Sir,thus ſtill to haunt my houſe.c. 1597 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Merry Wiues of Windsor”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward]...
- To make uneasy, restless.
- The memory of his past failures haunted him.
- The murder of Déagol haunted Gollum, and he had made up a defence.1954, J.R.R. Tolkien, The Fellowship of the Ring
- Synonyms:
- nag
- To stalk; to follow.
- The policeman haunted him, following him everywhere.
- Ex's and the oh-oh-oh's, they haunt me / Like ghosts, they want me / To make 'em a-a-all / They won't let go / Ex's and oh's2014 September 23, Elle King, Dave Bassett, “Ex's & Oh's”, in Love Stuff, performed by Elle King
- To live habitually; to stay, to remain.
- Ieſus therfore walked no more openly amõge the iewes : butt went his waye thence vnto a countre ny to a wildernes into a cite called effraym / and there haunted with his diſciples.1526, [William Tyndale, transl.], The Newe Testamẽt […] (Tyndale Bible), [Worms, Germany: Peter Schöffer], →OCLC, John xj:[54], folio cxxxviij, verso
- […]That yonder in that faithfull wilderneſſe / Huge monſters haunt,and many dangers dwell;[…]1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book III, Canto X”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC, stanza 40, page 554
- Synonyms:
- live
- To accustom; habituate; make accustomed to.
- […]haunte thi silf to pite [or pitee].c. 1382–1395, John Wycliffe [et al.], edited by Josiah Forshall and Frederic Madden, The Holy Bible, […], volume I (in Middle English), Oxford: At the University Press, published 1850, →OCLC, I....
- To practise; to devote oneself to.
- Leave honest pleasure, and haunt no good pastime.a. 1569 (date written), Roger Ascham, edited by Margaret Ascham, The Scholemaster: Or Plaine and Perfite Way of Teaching Children, to Vnderstand, Write, and Speake, the Latin Tong, […], London: […]...
- To persist in staying or visiting.
- I haue charg’d thee not to haunt about my doores:[…]c. 1603–1604 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Othello, the Moore of Venice”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac...
Noun
haunt (plural haunts)
- A place at which one is regularly found; a habitation or hangout.
- The shopping mall is a popular haunt of the local teenagers in this town.
- I went back the town I used to live and visited all my old haunts.
- Synonyms:
- repair
- A ghost.
- Synonyms:
- haint
- A lair or feeding place of animals in the wild.
- The lofty mountains roſe faint to the ſight and loſt their foreheads in the diſtant ſkies: the little hills, cloathed in darker green and ſkirted with embroidered vales, diſcovered the ſecret haunts of kids and bounding roes.1769, Firishta, translated by Alexander Dow, Tales translated from the Persian of Inatulla of Delhi, volume I, Dublin: P. and W. Wilson et al., page iv
haunt meaning in Tamil, Urdu, Bengali and Malayalam
haunt in Tamil
- நடமாட்டப்பகுதி, பயிலிடம்
haunt in Urdu
- اڈہ, اکھیڑا, بیٹھک, بسیرا, پسندیدہ ٹھکانا, باربار آنا جانا
haunt in Bengali
- ভুতুড়ে আবেশ, বার বার মনে আসা, কোনো স্থানে নিয়মিত যাওয়া
haunt in Malayalam
- appear in, materialize in, visit
- പ്രത്യക്ഷീഭവിക്കുക, പ്രത്യക്ഷമാകുക, ആവിർഭവിക്കുക, ഭൂതബാധയുണ്ടാകുക, ഭൂതംപ്രത്യക്ഷപ്പെടുക, ഭൂതോപദ്രവമുണ്ടാകുക
- patronize, frequent, visit regularly
- കൂടെക്കൂടെ ചെല്ലുക, കൂടെക്കൂടെ സന്ദർശിക്കുക, പതിവായി പോവുക, എപ്പോഴും പോവുക, ഉറ്റസമ്പർക്കം പുലർത്തുക, കൂടെക്കൂടെ പോവുക
- disturb, torment, trouble
- വേട്ടയാടുക, മനസ്സിൽനിന്നു വിട്ടുപോകാതെ നിൽക്കുക, മനസ്സിൽ ഭാരമായി കിടക്കുക, അലട്ടുക, തുടരെ ഉപദ്രവിക്കുക, അലോസരപ്പെടുത്തുക
- hang-out, stamping ground, meeting place
- അടിക്കടി നടമാടുന്ന ഇടം, നിത്യവാസസ്ഥാനം, കൂടക്കൂടെ പോകുന്ന സ്ഥലം, സ്ഥിരംസങ്കേതം, വിഹാരസ്ഥലം, വിഹാരകേന്ദ്രം
More languagesFewer languages
- haunt in Kannada
- ವಿಶೇಷವಾಗಿ ಸುಳಿದಾಡುವ ಸ್ಥಳ, ಆಗಾಗ ಭೇಟಿಯಾಗುವ ಸ್ಥಳ, ದೆವ್ವಗಳ ತಾಣ, ಕಳ್ಳರ ಗುಪ್ತಸ್ಥಳ
- haunt in Assamese
- আড্ডা adda
- haunt in Persian
- پاتوق pâtoq
Examples of haunt in a sentence
- those cares that haunt the court and town1713, Jonathan Swift, Imitation of Horace, Book I. Ep. VII:
- Near the foot of it is a small lake, the haunt of the solitary bittern, with water-snakes basking in the sun on the leaves of the pond-lilies which lie on the surface.1819, Washington Irving, The Sketch Book, Rip Van Winkle:
- Both Jack and Fletcher had graduated the year before, but still took an interest in their old haunts, and patronized the fellows who were not yet through.1868, Louisa May Alcott, Kitty's Class Day:
- Wyoming has been a favorite haunt of paleontologists for the past century ever since westering pioneers reported that many vertebrate fossils were almost lying on the ground.1984 October 8, Timothy Loughran, Natalie Angier, “Science: Striking It Rich in Wyoming”, in Time:
Synonyms of haunt
Forms of haunt
| Verb | |
|---|---|
| third-person singular present | haunts |
| present participle | haunting |
| past participle | haunted |
| past | haunted |
| alternative Scotland | hant |
| alternative US pronunciation-spelling | ha'nt |
| alternative US pronunciation-spelling | haint |
| alternative US pronunciation-spelling | harnt |
| Noun | |
| plural | haunts |
Origin of haunt
From Middle English haunten (“to reside, inhabit, use, employ”), from Old French hanter (“to inhabit, frequent, resort to”), from Old Northern French hanter (“to go back home, frequent”), from Old Norse heimta (“to bring home, fetch”) or/and from Old English hāmettan (“to bring home; house; cohabit with”); both from Proto-Germanic *haimatjaną (“to house, bring home”), from Proto-Germanic *haimaz (“village, home”), from Proto-Indo-European *ḱóymos (“village”). Cognate with Old English hǣman (“to cohabit, lie with, marry”); related to Old English hām (“home, village”), Old French hantin (“a stay, a place frequented by”) from the same Germanic source. Another descendant from the French is Dutch hanteren, whence German hantieren, Swedish hantera, Danish håndtere. More at home.
Words formed from haunt
Phrases with haunt
Words that rhyme with haunt
Questions about haunt
- What does haunt mean?
- Haunt means to inhabit or to visit frequently (most often used in reference to ghosts).
- What is haunt in Tamil?
- Haunt in Tamil is நடமாட்டப்பகுதி, பயிலிடம். See Haunt meaning in Tamil.
- How do you use haunt in a sentence?
- those cares that haunt the court and town
- What part of speech is haunt?
- Haunt can be a verb or a noun.
- How do you pronounce haunt?
- Haunt is pronounced /hɔːnt/ (UK).
- What is the past tense of haunt?
- The past tense of haunt is haunted.
Words near haunt in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: haunt (page history and authors); haunt (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); haunt (Urdu Wiktionary) (page history and authors); Haunt (Bengali Wiktionary) (page history and authors); haunt (Olam, E.K. Kurup corpus) (dataset and license); haunt (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors); আড্ডা (Assamese) (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.
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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-haunt.wav.
Cite this entry: “haunt.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/haunt. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.