haunting

Adjective
Synonyms: persistent

WordNet 3.0

Adjective (2)

  1. continually recurring to the mind“haunting memories”“the cathedral organ and the distant voices have a haunting beauty — Claudia Cassidy”Synonyms: persistent
  2. having a deeply disquieting or disturbing effect“from two handsome and talented young men to two haunting horrors of disintegration — Charles Lee”
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Webster's Dictionary (GCIDE)

Haunt \Haunt\ (h[aum]nt; 277), v. t. [imp. & p. p. Haunted; p. pr. & vb. n. Haunting.] [F. hanter; of uncertain origin, perh. from an assumed LL. ambitare to go about, fr. L. ambire (see Ambition); or cf. Icel. heimta to demand, regain, akin to heim home (see Home). [root]36.]

1.To frequent; to resort to frequently; to visit pertinaciously or intrusively; to intrude upon. [1913 Webster]

You wrong me, sir, thus still to haunt my house.— Shak.[1913 Webster]
Those cares that haunt the court and town.— Swift.[1913 Webster]

2.To inhabit or frequent as a specter; to visit as a ghost or apparition; -- said of spirits or ghosts, especially of dead people; as, the murdered man haunts the house where he died. [1913 Webster]

Foul spirits haunt my resting place.— Fairfax.[1913 Webster]

3.To practice; to devote one's self to. [Obs.] [1913 Webster]

That other merchandise that men haunt with fraud . . . is cursed.— Chaucer.[1913 Webster]
Leave honest pleasure, and haunt no good pastime.— Ascham.[1913 Webster]

4.To accustom; to habituate. [Obs.] [1913 Webster]

Haunt thyself to pity.— Wyclif.[1913 Webster]
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