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Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
haunch
noun
COLLOCATIONS FROM CORPUS
■ VERB
sit
▪ Then he sat back on his haunches and sniffed the air, holding his paws in the air for quiet.
▪ As she approached the six she saw others at the far goal sit oil their haunches and grin at her.
▪ George sat on his haunches, biting his lip inside the mask.
▪ Then he stopped dead and sat back on his haunches.
▪ Slowly she slid down the wall, her back cold against the plaster until she sat upon her haunches.
squat
▪ Finally he broke away and went and squatted on his haunches by the stream.
▪ People crammed every square foot of the deck, squatting on their haunches shoulder to shoulder.
▪ Hazel squatted on his haunches and stared at the orderly forest of small, glaucous trees with their columns of black-and-white bloom.
▪ He is still unable to squat on his haunches to examine a putt.
EXAMPLES FROM CORPUS
▪ Finally he broke away and went and squatted on his haunches by the stream.
▪ Its front paws were folded back beneath its body and its back paws disappeared beneath its round rear haunches.
▪ Sinnett rose on his haunches and craned his neck from the other side.
▪ Sure enough, she was still there, sitting on her haunches eyeing me thoughtfully.
▪ They have the charming habit of sitting up on their haunches and basking in the early morning sun.
▪ To talk, they often got down on their haunches and hunkered.
▪ Tuthanach slingshot whizzed and whirred, and two of the horsemen fell back over the mounts' haunches.
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Haunch

Haunch \Haunch\ (h[aum]nch; 277), n. [F. hanche, of German origin; cf. OD. hancke, hencke, and also OHG. ancha; prob. not akin to E. ankle.]

  1. The hip; the projecting region of the lateral parts of the pelvis and the hip joint; the hind part.

  2. Of meats: The leg and loin taken together; as, a haunch of venison.

    Haunch bone. See Innominate bone, under Innominate.

    Haunches of an arch (Arch.), the parts on each side of the crown of an arch. (See Crown, n., 11.) Each haunch may be considered as from one half to two thirds of the half arch.

Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
haunch

early 13c., from Old French hanche (12c.) "hip, thigh; haunch," from a Germanic source, perhaps Frankish *hanka (cognates: Old High German hinkan "to limp," ancha "leg," literally "joint;" Middle Dutch hanke "haunch"). "It is only since the 18th c. that the spelling haunch has displaced hanch" [OED]. Related: Haunches.

Wiktionary
haunch

n. 1 (context anatomy English) The area encompassing the upper thigh, hip and buttocks on one side of a human, primate, or quadruped animal, especially one that can sit on its hindquarters. 2 The loin and leg of a quadruped, especially when used as food. 3 (context architecture English) A squat vertical support structure.

WordNet
haunch
  1. n. the hip and buttock and upper thigh in human beings

  2. the loin and leg of a quadruped

Usage examples of "haunch".

He began with chowder, proceeded to braised atman haunch sided with rubelo, sugar-grass, thet eyes, and Lima beans, and ended with a large slice of cheesecake.

The succulent aroma of barbecuing pork wafted through the chill spring air, and fragrant clouds of hickory smoke rose from the fires near the smithy, where haunches of venison, sides of mutton, and broiled fowl in their dozens turned on spits.

It bawled when Jack hit it, floundered backward, sat briefly on its haunches, and then lunged for the far bank.

For his dog, seated on her haunches, was looking at him with that peculiarly steady gaze which betokened in her the desire for food.

It slammed Blucher back onto her haunches with Such violence that Otto von Kleine and his officers were thrown heavily to the steel deck.

The magnificent curves of hips and haunches, the graciously swelling belly with its deep navel, and the full, fat, fleshy and prominent mount of love together with her rather full, firm and outstanding bubbies, made her really mouthwatering.

Here and there a chuckwalla darted across the trail or a rock squirrel sat on his haunches and scolded as we passed.

Its unkempt fur stuck out in brown clumps on its sunken sides and hung in tufts from its lean haunches.

Another command, and the front yard was filled with a menacing rumbling growl as the Dobe leaned forward on his haunches, looking at nothing in particular.

The doppelganger skittered back on its haunches in a desperate attempt to avoid the voicelike it had sent a shock wave across the still chamber.

I had fleshed the point of the falchion in the haunch of one of these animals when I heard the drumming of hoofs, and supposing them to belong to the destrier of an estafette, moved to the edge of the road to let him pass.

Everyone gathered around the large pit in which the haunches of bison were cooking.

That any gigot of mutton, exquisite though much of the five-year-old blackfaced must assuredly be, can, with any rational hopes of success, contend against a haunch of venison, will be asserted by no devout lover of truth.

Grumps was there, and all that Grumps did was to sit on his haunches and stare at Fan and Crusoe, and wag his tail as well as he could in so awkward a position!

The females are hornless, somewhat smaller, and pale yellowish-fawn above, white below, with a pale streak from the shoulder to the haunch.