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

Intelligence officials have repeatedly made clear they hanker after the same generative AI tools that promise to revolutionize swaths of business and modernize economies.

From Seattle Times • May 13, 2024

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

When bat droppings are scarce, female Neotrogla hanker for sperm, which is encased in nutritious capsules called spermatophores.

From New York Times • Jan. 10, 2023

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