v., haunt·ed, haunt·ing, haunts. v.tr.
- To inhabit, visit, or appear to in the form of a ghost or other supernatural being.
- To visit often; frequent: haunted the movie theaters.
- To come to the mind of continually; obsess: a riddle that haunted me all morning.
- To be continually present in; pervade: the melancholy that haunts the composer's music.
To recur or visit often, especially as a ghost.
n.
- A place much frequented.
- also hant or ha'nt (hănt) or haint (hānt) Chiefly Southern U.S. A ghost or other supernatural being.
[Middle English haunten, to frequent, from Old French hanter.]
haunter haunt'er n.
The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition Copyright © 2007, 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Updated in 2009. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
