
hub | hub: n. centre, focus, focal point, pivot, heart, core, nucleus, nave: This is the hub of the city, around which everything else moves.
huddle | huddle: n. 1 cluster, group, bunch, clump, pack, herd, crowd, throng, mass: Everyone got into a huddle, trying to keep warm. 2 meeting, conference, discussion, consultation: They were in a huddle, deciding what to do next. --v. 3 cluster, gather, crowd or press together, throng or flock together, nestle, jam or cram together, squeeze together: We huddled in basements during air raids. 4 meet, discuss, confer, consult: Let''s huddle on this question of the advertising schedule.
hue | hue: n. colour, tint, shade, tinge, tone, cast, tincture, Technical chroma: The dust in the atmosphere gives the sunsets a reddish hue.
huff | huff: n. 1 in a huff. piqued, peeved, testy, irritated, angered, vexed, annoyed, in high dudgeon, provoked, exasperated, petulant, in a pet, Colloq (all) het up: She went off in a huff because I didn''t praise her painting. --v. 2 puff, blow, bluster: When I complained about the food, the manager simply huffed and puffed and walked away.
hug | hug: v. 1 embrace, clasp, squeeze, cuddle, snuggle, Archaic or literary clip: They hugged each other warmly, then kissed goodbye. 2 follow closely, cling to, stay or keep near or close to: We hugged the ground as the bullets whizzed by overhead. --n. 3 embrace, clasp, squeeze, Colloq clinch: She saw me, ran over, and gave me a big hug.
huge | huge: adj. large, great, enormous, gigantic, giant, immense, massive, tremendous, gargantuan, prodigious, mammoth, colossal, monumental, Brobdingnagian, titanic, stupendous, elephantine, leviathan, mountainous, vast, Colloq jumbo, whopping: The red spot on Jupiter is so huge it could swallow the earth several times over.
hulk | hulk: n. 1 shipwreck, wreck, derelict, shell, skeleton: The rusting hulk of the once-proud ship is tied up at the dock. 2 oaf, clod, lout, ox, Slang US galoot or galloot, klutz: Don''t tell me that hulk of a man painted these delicate miniatures!
hulking | hulking: adj. clumsy, awkward, ungainly, lubberly, oafish, loutish; unwieldy, cumbersome, bulky, ponderous, massive, ungraceful, inelegant: Their great hulking son could no longer fit into his clothes. That hulking monolith of an office building dominates the entire neighbourhood.
hull | hull: n. 1 framework, skeleton, frame, structure, body: The hull of the ship completed, we added the superstructure. 2 shell, pod, case, husk, skin, peel, rind, US shuck: Squirrels carefully nibble through the hull of the nut to get at the kernel inside. --v. 3 shell, peel, skin, husk, US shuck: We hulled all the nuts and they are now ready for the fruit cake.
hum | hum: v. 1 buzz, drone, thrum, murmur, whirr, purr, vibrate, Technical bombinate or bombilate: I want to smell the wild flowers and hear the bees hum once again. 2 bustle, stir, be active, move briskly, Colloq tick (over): Within three months of completion, the new plant was humming. 3 intone: I said, ''Do you know your rock guitar is keeping me awake?'', and he replied, ''No, man, but if you hum it I''ll try to play it.'' --n. 4 buzz, buzzing, drone, droning, thrum, thrumming, murmur, murmuring, murmuration, whirr, whirring, purr, purring, vibration: From the other room came the hum of conversation.
human | human: adj. 1 mortal, anthropoid, hominoid, android; hominid; Possibly offensive manlike: The aliens from the spaceship had few human characteristics. It is human nature to think. 2 sensitive, defenceless, weak, fallible, vulnerable: She is human, too, and can be easily hurt. 3 kind, kindly, kind-hearted, considerate, charitable, compassionate, merciful, benign, benignant, tender, gentle, forgiving, lenient, benevolent, beneficent, generous, magnanimous, humanitarian, understanding, accommodating, sympathetic, good-natured, humane, sensitive: Human concern for others is in short supply these days. --n. 4 human being, person, individual, woman, man, child, mortal, one, soul, someone, somebody: Humans have long maltreated many of the animals on which they depend.
humanitarian | humanitarian: adj. 1 See human, 3. --n. 2 Good Samaritan, benefactor, philanthropist, altruist: Because of her charitable works, Lady Pendleton is thought of as a great humanitarian.
humanity | humanity: n. 1 human race, people, society, humankind, Homo sapiens; the public, the masses, community; Possibly offensive man, mankind: From what we are told, humanity took millions of years to evolve. 2 humanness, human nature, mortality: On his first voyage to Mars, Kollworth began to doubt his own humanity. 3 kindness, kindliness, kind-heartedness, consideration, helpfulness, charitableness, open-heartedness, warm-heartedness, good will, benevolence, compassion, mercifulness, mercy, benignity, tenderness, warmth, gentleness, leniency or lenience or lenity, beneficence, generosity, unselfishness, magnanimity, understanding, sympathy, sensitivity: It was owing to the humanity of our neighbours that we survived the bombing.
humble | humble: adj. 1 modest, reserved, unpretentious, unostentatious, self-effacing, unassuming, unpresuming: For someone who has accomplished so much, she is quite humble. 2 submissive, meek, servile, obsequious, deferential, mild, respectful, subservient, subdued: Usually pompous, Nigel became humble in the presence of the chairman. 3 lowly, low, inferior, mean, ignoble, ordinary, plebeian, common, simple, obscure, unprepossessing, unimportant, undistinguished, insignificant; low-born, base, base-born: He lives in a humble cottage. Though she came from a humble background, she rose to become prime minister. --v. 4 chasten, bring or pull down, subdue, abase, debase, demean, lower, degrade, downgrade, reduce, make (someone) eat humble pie, lose face, shame, humiliate, crush, break, mortify, chagrin, Colloq put down, take (someone) down a peg or notch: He found army discipline a humbling experience.
humdrum | humdrum: adj. dull, boring, tedious, tiresome, wearisome, monotonous, unvaried, unvarying, routine, undiversified, unchanging, repetitious, uneventful, unexciting, uninteresting, prosaic, mundane, ordinary, commonplace, common, banal, dry, insipid, jejune: They saw no way of escaping from their humdrum lives.
humid | humid: adj. damp, moist, muggy, clammy, sticky, steamy, soggy, sultry, wet: The weather has been oppressively hot and humid all week.
humiliate | humiliate: v. See humble, 4.
humiliation | humiliation: n. disgrace, shame, mortification, dishonour, ignominy, indignity, discredit, loss of face, obloquy, abasement, depreciation, detraction, degradation, derogation, belittlement, disparagement, shaming, embarrassment, humbling: He had to suffer the humiliation of being drummed out of the corps.
humility | humility: n. modesty, meekness, self-effacement, shyness, diffidence, timidity, timorousness, meekness, bashfulness, mildness, unpretentiousness, submissiveness, servility, self-abasement, lowliness: She sees humility as dissatisfaction with oneself on account of some defect or infirmity.
humorous | humorous: adj. funny, comical, facetious, laughable, risible, ludicrous, farcical, side-splitting, hilarious, merry; droll, whimsical, amusing, witty, waggish, jocular, jocose, playful, pleasant, Colloq hysterical: The humorous parts of the play sent the audience into gales of laughter.
humour | humour: n. 1 funniness, comedy, wit, facetiousness, ludicrousness, drollery, jocoseness or jocosity, jocularity, waggishness, raillery, banter: One writer defined humour as ''the happy compound of pathos and playfulness'', another referred to the sense of humour as a ''modulating and restraining balance-wheel''. 2 comedy, farce, jokes, jests, witticisms, wit, Slang wisecracks, gags: Milton was scarcely known as a writer of humour. 3 mood, frame of mind, temper; spirit(s); disposition, nature, temperament: She is in a bad humour till after breakfast. --v. 4 soothe, gratify, placate, please, mollify, indulge, appease, pamper, cosset, coddle, mollycoddle, jolly, baby, spoil: They are trying to humour him because he''s in a bad mood.
hump | hump: n. 1 bulge, lump, bump, protuberance, protrusion, projection, knob, node, mass, hunch, enlargement, swelling, growth, excrescence, tumefaction, tumescence; mound, barrow, tell, hummock, hillock, tumulus, Brit dialect tump: Digging into the hump near the trees, we uncovered an ancient burial-ground. --v. 2 hunch, arch, curve, crook, bend: Sulking in the corner, he humped his back and refused to speak to anyone. 3 drag, lug, haul, carry, heave: She had to hump two heavy suitcases all the way from the railway station.
hunch | hunch: n. 1 (intuitive) guess, intuition, feeling, impression, suspicion, premonition, presentiment: I had a hunch they would be late. 2 See hump, 1. --v. 3 See hump, 2.
hunger | hunger: n. 1 hungriness, emptiness, appetite, ravenousness, voraciousness, voracity; famine, starvation: We ate leaves to stave off the pangs of hunger. Some optimists hope to eliminate hunger from the planet by the year 2000. 2 yearning, desire, craving, itch, thirst, longing, hankering, mania, cupidity, Formal cacoethes, Colloq yen: She felt an insatiable hunger for intellectual companionship. --v. 3 Usually, hunger for or after. crave, yearn, desire, thirst, want, hanker, Colloq yen, have a yen: Blessed are they who hunger and thirst after righteousness.
hungry | hungry: adj. 1 famished, starved, starving, ravenous, voracious, empty, hollow, Colloq chiefly Brit peckish: I''m hungry enough to eat a horse. 2 craving, covetous, eager, avid, greedy, keen, yearning, desirous, longing, hungering, thirsting, starving, dying, Colloq hankering: Marooned for years, Crusoe was hungry for the sight of another human being. 3 acquisitive, greedy, thirsty, insatiable, deprived: The parched, hungry earth drank up the rain.
hunt | hunt: v. 1 chase, pursue, dog, hound, stalk, trail, track (down), trace; course: The jewel thieves were hunted across three continents. 2 Also, hunt for or up or out or through. seek (out), search (for), go in search of or for, look (high and low) for, quest after, go in quest of, scour, ransack, investigate, pry into, go over or through with a fine-tooth comb, examine, explore, Colloq US check out: Detectives hunted the carpet for clues. She is hunting a job in publishing. I have hunted for the ring but cannot find it. Can you hunt up someone to fill the vacancy? Hunt through your pockets again for the key. --n. 3 chase, pursuit, tracking (down), stalking, hunting; course: The ten-year hunt for the thieves continues. 4 search, quest: My hunt ended when I found the ring.
hunter | hunter: n. huntsman, huntswoman, stalker, tracker, Nimrod, Orion; huntress: An expert hunter, she bagged three tigers last year.
hurdle | hurdle: n. 1 barrier, obstacle, impediment, hindrance, obstruction, bar, handicap, restraint, snag, (stumbling) block, check, difficulty, complication, interference: Can she overcome the hurdle of prejudice against women? --v. 2 leap (over), vault (over), jump (over): The fugitive easily hurdled the fence around the compound.
hurl | hurl: v. throw, toss, shy, sling, fling, pitch, cast, send, fire, heave, propel, let fly, Colloq chuck: The fast bowler hurled the ball past the batsman.
hurricane | hurricane: n. cyclone, tornado, typhoon, whirlwind, twister, wind-storm, storm, gale, blow: The 1985 hurricane destroyed millions of trees.
hurried | hurried: adj. 1 hasty, feverish, frantic, hectic, breakneck, frenetic, impetuous, rushed, precipitate, swift, quick, speedy; brief, short: We ate a hurried lunch before leaving to catch the train. 2 superficial, cursory, offhand, perfunctory, slapdash: Airport security guards made only a hurried examination of the hand luggage.
hurry | hurry: v. 1 rush, hasten, make haste, speed, race, dash, hustle, scurry, tear, fly, run, shoot, scoot, scamper, scuttle, hotfoot (it), Colloq shake a leg, get cracking, get a move on, go hell for leather, skedaddle, step on it, step on the gas, Chiefly US hightail (it), go like greased lightning, get a wiggle on: You''ll have to hurry to catch your bus. 2 speed up, accelerate, hasten, rush, push, press, expedite; urge, egg: Such changes take time and can''t be hurried. She hurried the children along so that they wouldn''t miss the bus. --n. 3 haste, rush, urgency, eagerness; agitation, disquiet, upset, dither, fuss, bustle, ado, to-do, furore or US furor, commotion, turmoil, stir, pother; Colloq stew, sweat: Why all the hurry to finish before dark? He''s in an awful hurry to get home.
hurt | hurt: v. 1 harm, injure, wound; damage, impair, mar, spoil, vitiate, ruin: She''s so gentle she wouldn''t hurt a fly. The scandal hurt the candidate''s chances of election. 2 ache, smart, pain, pinch, sting, burn, torment, gripe: My elbow really hurts where I hit it. 3 distress, grieve, affect, afflict, aggrieve, depress, upset, disappoint, pain, cut to the quick, affront, offend: Sticks and stones may break my bones but names will never hurt me. You always hurt the one you love. 4 injure, maim, wound, cripple, lame, disable, incapacitate, damage, mutilate, mangle: Three people have been badly hurt in a car crash on the motorway. --n. 5 harm, injury, damage, detriment, disadvantage: How much more hurt can you cause beyond what you have done already? 6 ache, pain, pang, distress, discomfort, suffering, torment, torture, agony; anguish, misery, woe, dolour, sadness, depression: If you rub on this ointment, the hurt will go away. You cannot imagine the hurt we felt when he failed his examinations. --adj. 7 injured, wronged, pained, rueful, grieved, unhappy, aggrieved, sad, wretched, woebegone, sorrowful, mournful, depressed, dejected, dismal, gloomy, melancholy: Whenever I mention getting a job she gets that hurt expression on her face. 8 damaged, defective, marred, impaired, broken, worn, dilapidated, shop-worn, scratched, bruised, scarred: They are holding a sale of hurt merchandise at the warehouse tomorrow.
hurtful | hurtful: adj. 1 harmful, injurious, detrimental, pernicious, prejudicial, disadvantageous, damaging, deleterious, destructive, noisome, noxious, baneful, mischievous: Efficient government is advantageous to many and hurtful to none. 2 nasty, cruel, cutting, malicious, mean, unkind, wounding, spiteful: He made some hurtful accusations about the librarian''s efficiency.
hurtle | hurtle: v. rush (headlong), tear, shoot, race, speed; plunge: The car hurtled round the corner and crashed into a tree. Two bodies hurtled past me into the abyss below.
husband | husband: n. 1 mate, spouse, groom, bridegroom, partner, Colloq old man, hubby: My husband and I take turns cleaning the house. --v. 2 save, keep, retain, hoard, conserve, preserve, store; budget, economize (on), manage: If we husband our resources, we shall have enough for a rainy day.
hush | hush: interj. 1 Shush!, Quiet!, Be or Keep quiet or silent or still!, Hold your tongue!, Mum''s the word!, Slang Shut up!, Clam up!, Shut your trap!, Button your lip!, Shut your gob!, Brit Belt up!, US Hush up!, Shut your face!, US dialect Hush your mouth!: Hush! You''re in a library. --v. 2 shush, silence, still, quiet: I wish she''d hush the child''s wailing. 3 suppress, mute, soften, soft-pedal, whisper: They spoke in hushed tones. 4 Usually, hush up. suppress, repress, quash, cover up, hide, conceal, keep quiet, Colloq squelch: They tried to hush up the news about his extramarital affairs. 5 soothe, allay, calm, quiet, mollify, pacify, placate, tranquillize: Our worst fears were hushed by father''s comforting words. --n. 6 silence, quiet, stillness, peace, tranquillity: A hush came over the crowd as she rose to speak.
husky | husky: adj. 1 brawny, strapping, sturdy, burly, well-built, robust, hefty, rugged, powerful, strong, stout, thickset, muscular, tough, Colloq beefy: Two husky men arrived to move the piano. 2 hoarse, gruff, dry, harsh, rasping, rough, raucous: She has a deep, husky voice I would recognize anywhere.
hustle | hustle: v. 1 rush, push, hurry, hasten, run, dash, scamper, scuttle, scurry, sprint: Mrs Grumble hustles off to the market every morning. He said that one must really hustle to make a living these days. 2 shove, push, drive, force, hasten, expedite, press: The bill was hustled through the legislature in just one day. 3 shove, crowd, push, jostle, elbow, thrust, force: She tried to hustle her way to the front of the queue. 4 push, eject, force, coerce, drive, Colloq bounce: He was hustled out the back door. --n. 5 pushing, jostling, buffeting, jarring, elbowing, shoving, nudging: We always take taxis to avoid the hustle in the underground. 6 activity, action, stir, movement: I can''t concentrate with all the hustle and bustle going on in the office.
hut | hut: n. cabin, shack, shanty, shed, lean-to, shelter, cote, Literary cot, Australian gunyah: We found a tiny hut where we could keep out of the storm.
