웅크리다

Originally an emphatic aspirated variant of earlier and now rare 웅그리다 (unggeurida), part of a wider family of movement-related verbs from an ancient ideophonic root /om~um/. Compare 움직이다 (umjigida, “to move”), 오므리다 (omeurida, “to cup one's hands”), 움츠리다 (umcheurida, “to shrink; to cringe”).

• (SK Standard/Seoul) IPA^(key):
• Phonetic hangul:

웅크리다 • (ungkeurida) (infinitive 웅크려 or 웅크리어, sequential 웅크리니)

1. (transitive) to crouch; to cause to crouch (a body part)

   괴물은 거구를 웅크렸다.

   Goemur-eun geogu-reul ungkeuryeotda.

   The monster's gargantuan body crouched.

2. (intransitive, figurative, of emotions, etc.) to exist in a suppressed or hidden state (usually as 웅크리고 있다 (ungkeurigo itda))
   • 2009, 김미도 , “과학과 연극의 만남, 그 의미와 성과 ”, in Gongyeon-gwa ribyu‎, volume 67, pages 38—46:

     그 아이에게는 얼마나 따뜻하고 아름다운 마음이 웅크리고 있는가.

     Geu ai-ege-neun eolmana ttatteuthago areumdaun ma'eum-i ungkeurigo inneun'ga.

     How warm and beautiful the mind that lies within that child is.