How to Use hanker in a Sentence

hanker

verb
  • By the middle of the winter, they were hankering for a warm day.
  • When hankering for some nuts, grab a handful of shells and crack them open.
    — Hilary Fitzgerald Campbell, New Yorker, 23 Sep. 2025
  • Some days even the dog that always wanted more of you seems to hanker for more space.
    — Rekha Basu, Star Tribune, 29 July 2020
  • Has there been a classic Sondheim role he’s been hankering to do?
    — Charles McNulty, Los Angeles Times, 11 Dec. 2023
  • Being in the Windy City this fall may leave you numb—or hankering for a drink.
    — Will Gordon, Esquire, 4 Oct. 2017
  • Blood flowing into test tubes does not hanker for an audience.
    — Yiyun Li, The New Yorker, 9 Mar. 2025
  • The classic perception of posh old men in red trousers hankering for the good old days misses the point.
    — Luke McGee, CNN, 6 July 2019
  • Sam Clemmett’s been hankering to be a part of the Bridgerton world.
    — Adam Rathe, Town & Country, 8 May 2023
  • The world’s most populous country has hankered after a Games for decades.
    — Blythe Lawrence, Forbes.com, 31 Aug. 2025
  • If ever there was a fish with a hankering for life in the slow lane, Pacific rockfish would fill the bill.
    — Mike Campbell, Alaska Dispatch News, 4 Aug. 2017
  • Chances are, all of these scenarios trigger that hankering for a certain comfort food.
    — NBC News, 24 Jan. 2018
  • West Valley residents hankering to play blackjack near home won't have to wait much longer.
    — Jen Fifield, azcentral, 19 Nov. 2019
  • Americans were stuck at home, hankering for more space — and had the extra cash to buy their first homes or upgrade to larger ones.
    — Abha Bhattarai, Washington Post, 16 Mar. 2024
  • Still hankering for more details about the second fundraising quarter?
    — NBC News, 19 July 2019
  • Gad is approaching that hankering for new things with humor and heart, and in a way that finds middle ground for kids and their parents and guardians.
    — Carly Tagen-Dye, Peoplemag, 27 Mar. 2024
  • People still hanker to go out at night, so the challenge for night mayors is to make their cities safer and more inviting destinations.
    — Stephen Humphries, The Christian Science Monitor, 10 Aug. 2023
  • Last spring, the Midwest transplant was hankering to see some wildflowers.
    — Lila Seidman, Los Angeles Times, 26 Mar. 2026
  • Historic and lovely Rosecrans is not the only closed cemetery that people hanker for.
    — sandiegouniontribune.com, 17 May 2017
  • This annoys his wife, who hankers after Bingley (sight unseen) as a future son-in-law.
    — Literary Hub, 4 Sep. 2025
  • Williams, however, was hankering for another bite of the hero sandwich.
    — Bill Livingston, cleveland.com, 16 Mar. 2018
  • Dani Bell was a British copywriter who hankered for her own marketing startup.
    — Clive Thompson, Wired, 19 May 2020
  • Perhaps viewers are hankering for shows tinged with escapism and warmth this summer, to counteract all those heavy news cycles.
    — Matthew Gilbert, BostonGlobe.com, 1 Sep. 2023
  • Time Sports The slow pace of the winter meetings left plenty a fan hankering for more trade and signing action.
    — Jorge L. Ortiz, USA TODAY, 18 Dec. 2017
  • Anyone hankering to try these sandwiches, better act quickly, though.
    — Melissa Locker, Southern Living, 25 Sep. 2025
  • With their second daughter packing off for college this fall, a couple in their early 50s hankered for a whole new lifestyle.
    — courant.com, 1 Aug. 2019
  • Those hankering for a nightcap will hear Thunderbolt in Echo Park calling their name.
    — Sheila Yasmin Marikar, AFAR Media, 19 Mar. 2025
  • That choice might result in the turnaround Brett’s private-equity owners are hankering for.
    — Sam Schube, GQ, 7 Sep. 2017
  • Southeast Asian ministers aren’t the only ones to be hankering after a piece of the billion-dollar tour.
    — Eleanor Pringle, Fortune, 5 Mar. 2024
  • Maybe so, judging by New Yorkers’ sudden hankering to come together to craft.
    — Arden Fanning Andrews, Vogue, 7 Dec. 2023
  • They were rewarded with bellies full of chicken and a hankering for raw kale and Pepto-Bismol.
    — Jenn Harrisstaff Writer, Los Angeles Times, 25 Feb. 2020

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'hanker.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

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