Word Direct Answers

What does "haunt" mean?

Haunt: To inhabit or frequent as a specter; to visit as a ghost or apparition. Foul spirits haunt my resting place. Fairfax.

Additional senses

  1. 2.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.
  2. 3.To accustom; to habituate. [Obs.] Haunt thyself to pity. Wyclif.
  3. 4.To persist in staying or visiting. I've charged thee not to haunt about my doors. Shak.
  4. 5.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.
  5. 6.The habit of resorting to a place. [Obs.] The haunt you have got about the courts. Arbuthnot.
  6. 7.Practice; skill. [Obs.] Of clothmaking she hadde such an haunt. Chaucer.

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