Haunt definitions

Webster's 1828 Dictionary

H`AUNT, v.t.
1. To frequent; to resort to much or often, or to be much about; to visit customarily.
Celestial Venus haunts Idalia's groves.
2. To come to frequently; to intrude on; to trouble with frequent visits; to follow importunately.
You wrong me, Sir, thus still to haunt my house.
Those cares that haunt the court and town.
3. It is particularly applied to specters or apparitions, which are represented by fear and credulity as frequenting or inhabiting old, decayed and deserted houses.
Foul spirits haunt my resting place.
H`AUNT, v.i. To be much about; to visit or be present often.
I've charged thee not to haunt about my door.
H`AUNT, n. A place to which one frequently resorts. Taverns are often the haunts of tipplers. A den is the haunt of wild beasts.
1. The habit or custom of resorting to a place. [Not used.]
2. Custom; practice.

WordNet (r) 3.0 (2005)

n
1: a frequently visited place [syn: haunt, hangout, resort, repair, stamping ground] v
1: follow stealthily or recur constantly and spontaneously to; "her ex-boyfriend stalked her"; "the ghost of her mother haunted her" [syn: haunt, stalk]
2: haunt like a ghost; pursue; "Fear of illness haunts her" [syn: haunt, obsess, ghost]
3: be a regular or frequent visitor to a certain place; "She haunts the ballet" [syn: frequent, haunt]

Merriam Webster's

I. verb Etymology: Middle English, from Anglo-French hanter, probably from Old Norse heimta to lead home, pull, claim, from heimr home Date: 14th century transitive verb 1. a. to visit often ; frequent b. to continually seek the company of 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 intransitive verb 1. to stay around or persist ; linger 2. to appear habitually as a ghost • haunter noun • hauntingly adverb II. noun Date: 14th century 1. a place habitually frequented 2. chiefly dialect ghost

Oxford Reference Dictionary

v. & n. --v. 1 tr. (of a ghost) visit (a place) regularly, usu. reputedly giving signs of its presence. 2 tr. (of a person or animal) frequent or be persistently in (a place). 3 tr. (of a memory etc.) be persistently in the mind of. 4 intr. (foll. by with, in) stay habitually. --n. 1 (often in pl.) a place frequented by a person. 2 a place frequented by animals, esp. for food and drink. Derivatives: haunter n. Etymology: ME f. OF hanter f. Gmc

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Haunt Haunt (?; 277), v. t. [imp. & p. p. Haunted; p. pr. & vb. n. Haunting.] [F. hanter; of uncertain origin, perh. from an assumed LL. ambitare to go about, fr. L. ambire (see Ambition); or cf. Icel. heimta to demand, regain, akin to heim home (see Home). [root]36.] 1. To frequent; to resort to frequently; to visit pertinaciously or intrusively; to intrude upon. You wrong me, sir, thus still to haunt my house. --Shak. Those cares that haunt the court and town. --Swift. 2. To inhabit or frequent as a specter; to visit as a ghost or apparition. Foul spirits haunt my resting place. --Fairfax. 3. To practice; to devote one's self to. [Obs.] That other merchandise that men haunt with fraud . . . is cursed. --Chaucer. Leave honest pleasure, and haunt no good pastime. --Ascham. 4. To accustom; to habituate. [Obs.] Haunt thyself to pity. --Wyclif.

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Haunt Haunt, v. i. To persist in staying or visiting. I've charged thee not to haunt about my doors. --Shak.

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Haunt Haunt, n. 1. A place to which one frequently resorts; as, drinking saloons are the haunts of tipplers; a den is the haunt of wild beasts. Note: In Old English the place occupied by any one as a dwelling or in his business was called a haunt. Note: Often used figuratively. The household nook, The haunt of all affections pure. --Keble. The feeble soul, a haunt of fears. --Tennyson. 2. The habit of resorting to a place. [Obs.] The haunt you have got about the courts. --Arbuthnot. 3. Practice; skill. [Obs.] Of clothmaking she hadde such an haunt. --Chaucer.

Collin's Cobuild Dictionary

(haunts, haunting, haunted) 1. If something unpleasant haunts you, you keep thinking or worrying about it over a long period of time. The decision to leave her children now haunts her... VERB: V n 2. Something that haunts a person or organization regularly causes them problems over a long period of time. The stigma of being a bankrupt is likely to haunt him for the rest of his life. VERB: V n 3. A place that is the haunt of a particular person is one which they often visit because they enjoy going there. The Channel Islands are a favourite summer haunt for UK and French yachtsmen alike. N-COUNT: with supp 4. A ghost or spirit that haunts a place or a person regularly appears in the place, or is seen by the person and frightens them. His ghost is said to haunt some of the rooms, banging a toy drum. VERB: V n

International Standard Bible Encyclopedia

hont, hant: The verb in Old English was simply "to resort to," "frequent"; a place of dwelling or of business was a haunt. The noun occurs in 1Sa 23:22 as the translation of reghel, "foot," "See his place where his haunt is," the Revised Version margin, Hebrew `foot' "; the verb is the translation of yashabh, "to sit down," "to dwell" (Eze 26:17, "on all that haunt it," the Revised Version (British and American) "dwelt there," margin "inhabited her"), and of halakh, "to go,"' or "live" (1Sa 30:31, "all the places where David himself and his men were wont to haunt").

Soule's Dictionary of English Synonyms

I. v. a. 1. Frequent, resort to. 2. Hang upon, importune, follow importunately. 3. Inhabit, hover about, frequent (as a spectre or ghost). II. n. Retreat, resort, den, frequented place.

Moby Thesaurus

Masan, affect, apparition, appearance, astral, astral spirit, banshee, baths, beset, burden, casino, club, clubhouse, control, crush one, departed spirit, disembodied spirit, dog, duppy, dybbuk, eidolon, exhaust, form, frequent, fret, gambling house, gathering place, ghost, grateful dead, guide, habituate, hang about, hang around, hang out, hang out at, hangout, hant, harass, harry, haunt the memory, health resort, home, hound, idolum, immateriality, incorporeal, incorporeal being, incorporeity, larva, lemures, locality, manes, materialization, meeting place, obsess, oni, oppress, persecute, phantasm, phantasma, phantom, plague, poltergeist, possess, presence, prey on, purlieu, rallying point, range, rendezvous, resort, resort to, revenant, shade, shadow, shape, shrouded spirit, site, spa, specter, spectral ghost, spirit, spook, springs, sprite, stamping, stamping ground, theophany, tire, torment, trouble, unsubstantiality, vex, vision, visit, walking dead man, wandering soul, watering place, wear out, wear upon one, weary, weigh upon, weight down, worry, wraith, zombie