hanker

Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

I didn’t understand then that it is possible to hanker deeply after something that is neither pretty nor useful, just because of the person who once used it.

From The Wall Street Journal • Jan. 1, 2026

When people in the Niassa Special Reserve of northern Mozambique hanker for something sweet, they don’t call DoorDash or Uber Eats.

From Science Magazine • Dec. 6, 2023

Designers, pundits and consumers alike hanker for reasons to dress up again — routinely and in public.

From New York Times • Feb. 9, 2022

Nearly a month of shelter-in-place orders have forced some to hanker for the sticky floors of cinemas like never before.

From Washington Times • Apr. 14, 2020

We hanker to go on, even in the face of plain evidence that long, long lives are not necessarily pleasurable in the kind of society we have arranged thus far.

From "The Lives of a Cell" by Lewis Thomas