▪ I. † ˈhanker, n.1 Obs.
[f. hank n. 6 or v. 5 + -er1.]
One who takes part in bull-baiting.
| 1811 Lexicon Balatronicum, Bull Hankers, persons who over-drive bulls, or frequent bull baits. 1823 Egan Grose's Dict. Vulg. Tongue, Bull Hankers, men who delight in the sport of bull-hanking; that is, bull-baiting, or bullock-hunting. 1825 Hone Every-day Bk. I. 1171 [Smithfield] drovers, and bullock-hankers. |
▪ II. ˈhanker, n.2
[f. hanker v.]
A longing after something; a secret yearning.
| 1827 Beddoes Let. Oct. in Poems p. lxxvii, Nothing but the desperate hanker for distinction..ever set me upon rhyming. 1881 T. Hardy Laodicean iii. ix, She has not shown a genuine hanker for anybody yet. |
▪ III. hanker, v.
(ˈhæŋkə(r))
[Not known before 1600; history obscure. Mod.Du. has hunkeren (Plantijn, 1673, hungkeren), dial. hankeren, in same sense. Generally thought to be frequentative and intensive deriv. of hang v., but cf. hank v. 6.]
1. intr. To ‘hang about’, to linger or loiter about with longing or expectation. Now dial.
| 1601 F. Godwin Bps. of Eng. 539 [He] hauing hankered a long time about the Chauncery. 1641 Milton Reform. ii. (1851) 66 But let us not..stand hankering and politizing, when God..points us out the way to our peace. a 1652 Brome Eng. Moor i. i. Wks. 1873 II. 3, I was hankring at an ordinary, In quest of a new Master. 1713 J. Warder True Amazons 53 If you find any [hornet] hankering about your Bees. 1858 Hughes Scouring of W. Horse viii. 198, I used to hanker round the kitchen, or still-room, or wherever she might happen to be. |
2. To have a longing or craving. Const. after; less usually with for, or inf.
In Johnson's time ‘Scarcely used but in familiar language’; now common in literature.
| 1642 Rogers Naaman 111 The soules misery is..that she is alway hankering and catching at every shadow and vanity. 1652 Needham tr. Selden's Mare Cl. 248 The Saxons inhabiting the shore over against us, hanker'd after it. 1768–74 Tucker Lt. Nat. (1852) II. 15 The mind..always hankering after what she has not. 1835 Thirlwall Greece I. viii. 325 The tendency of human nature to hanker after all that is forbidden. 1850 Kingsley Alt. Locke x, To be told what you've been hankering to know so long. 1856 Mrs. Browning Aur. Leigh ix. 514 That Romney dared to hanker for your love. |
Hence ˈhankerer, one who hankers; ˈhankering ppl. a.; whence ˈhankeringly adv., in a hankering manner.
| 1845 Ld. Campbell Chancellors cxxiv. (1857) VI. 84 The bishops..had among them hankerers after the exiled family. 1859 Kingsley Misc. (1860) I. 286 Hankerers after fame and power. 1864 Webster, Hankeringly. |