From Longman Dictionary of Contemporary Englishhunkerhun‧ker /ˈhʌŋkə $ -ər/ verb → hunker down→ See Verb table
Examples from the Corpus
hunker• A third student has plopped his books by the door and is hunkering down against the wall.• He liked to hunker down and talk.• The 20-minute ride to the dinner table is chilly; you hunker down, gripping a thick blanket and your companion.• People are hunkering down in camps.• The view is worth every tortured moment of discomfort it takes to hunker down, scrunch up, and peer out.• School had trained them to hunker down, to disengage.• This year, Hollywood mostly prostrated itself, hunkering down until the wind from the right blows over.Origin hunker (1700-1800) Perhaps from a Scandinavian language 