This mini episode teaches you another expression that is useful during the coronavirus pandemic: “hunker down.”
Episode 159 of the Everybody ESL podcast is a mini episode that teaches you another useful expression that you might hear during the coronavirus pandemic: “hunker down.” Send your questions about English and your suggestions for future episodes to EverybodyESL@gmail.com! (And let me know if you’d like to record the introduction to a future episode.)
Today I’m going to teach you another expression that we hear a lot during this coronavirus pandemic. The expression is hunker down. Hunker down: h-u-n-k-e-r d-o-w-n. Hunker down.
To hunker down means “to wait for a long time while something difficult or dangerous happens” or “to prepare to wait for a long time while something difficult or dangerous happens.”
Here is an example of a sentence that uses the phrase hunker down: “The mountain climbers hunkered down in a cave before the powerful storm came.” The mountain climbers hunkered down in a cave before a powerful storm came. In that sentence, you can see that hunker down means “to wait for a long time while something dangerous or difficult happens around you.” In this sentence, the mountain climbers are hunkering down and waiting in a cave while a storm comes outside.
And you can see how we would hear this phrase a lot during the coronavirus pandemic. Because many people are now told to hunker down inside, to wait or prepare to wait for a long time inside until things become safe again.
That is hunker down, a very useful expression that I think you should know.