haunt
part of speech
verb (haunt, haunts, haunted, haunting); noun (a haunt, haunts)
meaning for a pupil
1) In stories, a ghost haunts a place or person when it appears there again and again. tree →
2) If a memory or worry haunts you, you keep thinking about it and it upsets you. tree →
3) To haunt a place means to go there very often. tree →
4) (noun) A haunt is a place someone visits often, like a favourite café. tree →
sense in the lessons
In stories and Halloween, haunted houses and castles are full of ghosts. In everyday life and stories, a bad mistake can «come back to haunt you». A «favourite haunt» is a place you love to go. Ghosts are not proven to be real; haunted-house tales are for fun and spooky stories. Phrases: «haunted house», «come back to haunt», «favourite haunt».
examples
- They say a ghost haunts the old castle. tree →
- We went to a haunted house at the fair. tree →
- The sad song haunted me for days. tree →
- That silly mistake came back to haunt him. tree →
- The park is our favourite haunt after school. tree →
- Pirates once haunted these seas. tree →
- The memory of the storm still haunts her. tree →
note
Regular verb: haunted (also an adjective: «a haunted house»). Pronounced «hawnt». Adjective: haunting (beautiful and sad, staying in your mind: «a haunting tune»). Science has found no evidence that ghosts exist; creaks and cold spots usually have ordinary causes.
In the corpora
- Then they chatter of «violet seas, tawny sands, and lizard-haunted walls» (tawny = golden brown).
- Every school has legends like this: the haunted toilets, the secret tunnel, the head who sleeps in the office.
- There is no evidence that ghosts exist or that "a ghost's breath" can haunt you.
- Ghost stories are made up; a dead pet does not come back to scratch or haunt anyone.
- Once kids hear the toilets are haunted, a dripping tap and a creaky door "prove" it.
Trees and pragmatics
Every meaning and example of «haunt» parsed by Mova, each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.