Nominal Forms
Infinitive: to hanker
Participle: hankered
Gerund: hankering
Indicative
Present
| I | hanker |
| you | hanker |
| he;she;it | hankers |
| we | hanker |
| you | hanker |
| they | hanker |
Perfect
| I | have hankered |
| you | have hankered |
| he;she;it | has hankered |
| we | have hankered |
| you | have hankered |
| they | have hankered |
Past
| I | hankered |
| you | hankered |
| he;she;it | hankered |
| we | hankered |
| you | hankered |
| they | hankered |
Pluperfect
| I | had hankered |
| you | had hankered |
| he;she;it | had hankered |
| we | had hankered |
| you | had hankered |
| they | had hankered |
Future
| I | will hanker |
| you | will hanker |
| he;she;it | will hanker |
| we | will hanker |
| you | will hanker |
| they | will hanker |
Future Perfect
| I | will have hankered |
| you | will have hankered |
| he;she;it | will have hankered |
| we | will have hankered |
| you | will have hankered |
| they | will have hankered |
Subjunctive
Present
| I | hanker |
| you | hanker |
| he;she;it | hanker |
| we | hanker |
| you | hanker |
| they | hanker |
Perfect
| I | have hankered |
| you | have hankered |
| he;she;it | have hankered |
| we | have hankered |
| you | have hankered |
| they | have hankered |
Imperfect
| I | hankered |
| you | hankered |
| he;she;it | hankered |
| we | hankered |
| you | hankered |
| they | hankered |
Pluperfect
| I | had hankered |
| you | had hankered |
| he;she;it | had hankered |
| we | had hankered |
| you | had hankered |
| they | had hankered |
Conditional
Present
| I | would hanker |
| you | would hanker |
| he;she;it | would hanker |
| we | would hanker |
| you | would hanker |
| they | would hanker |
Perfect
| I | would have hankered |
| you | would have hankered |
| he;she;it | would have hankered |
| we | would have hankered |
| you | would have hankered |
| they | would have hankered |
Imperative
| you | hanker |
| we | Let's hanker |
| you | hanker |
Verbs conjugated like 'hanker'
abandon,
abduct,
abear,
aberr,
abject,
abord,
abort,
abound,
abraid,
abray,
abrook,
abscind,
abscond,
absist,
absorb,
abstain,
abstract,
accend,
accent,
accept, etc. (List truncated at 20 verbs)
Verbs similar to 'hanker'
canker,
hawker,
hunker,
tanker,
anger,
banner,
banter,
bunker,
canter,
daiker,
Additional Information
Phrasal Verbs
Etymology
1. 1601, probably from Flem.
hankeren, related to Du.
hunkeren "to hanker," perhaps intens. of M.Du.
hangen "to hang." The notion is of "lingering about" with longing or craving.
2. With a secondary frequentative suffix -er, ultimately pointing to Proto-Germanic *hankōną, an iterative to *hanhaną (“to hang”). Related to Dutch hunkeren (“to crave”), which continues the zero-grade iterative. See: Dutch '
hunkeren'.
Sample Sentences
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If you hanker for chocolate, you'll like this fudge recipe.
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“O ’tis true enough, faith. I cannot understand Farmer Boldwood being such a fool at his time of life as to ho and hanker after thik^([sic]) woman in the way ’a do, and she not care a bit about en.” [1874, Thomas Hardy, Far from the Madding Crowd. […], volume II, London: Smith, Elder & Co., […], →OCLC, page 289:]
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“Baked, they were tough; and even boiled, they warn’t things for a hungry man to hanker after.” [1880, Mark Twain [pseudonym] (Samuel L[anghorne] Clemens), chapter XXII, in A Tramp Abroad; […], Hartford, Conn.: American Publishing Company; London: Chatto & Windus, →OCLC, page 220:]
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I objected. I don’t know whether it is that I am built wrong, but I never did seem to hanker after tombstones myself. [1889, Jerome K. Jerome, chapter 7, in Three Men in a Boat […] :]
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[…] it made us heroes, and that was what Tom Sawyer had always been hankering to be. [1894, Mark Twain, chapter 1, in Tom Sawyer Abroad:]
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She bade him good-night and hurried down the road. Next day he took her in a little watch with a brooch to pin on her dress. She had been hankering for it. [1915, W[illiam] Somerset Maugham, chapter LXI, in Of Human Bondage, New York, N.Y.: George H[enry] Doran Company, →OCLC:]
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Very greatly, as a boy, used I to hanker to ride within those friendly-looking cabs and to look out through those shining spectacles along those straight clean boilers towards those familiar flared-out chimneys. Now it was to be. [1957 February 26, Henry Maxwell, “A Sentimental Journey”, in Railway Magazine, page 82:]
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[…] the newly rich hanker after old aristocratic glitz. [2012 October 13, “Very good, sir”, in The Economist, →ISSN, archived from the original on 12 Jan 2025:]