Where did the term hunker down come from?

Apparently to hunker means to squat — basically to bend your butt down to your heels. The Oxford English Dictionary says its origin is “early 18th century: probably related to Dutch huiken and German hocken,” which generally translate as “to squat.”

What is a synonym for hunker down?

In this page you can discover 9 synonyms, antonyms, idiomatic expressions, and related words for hunker-down, like: hunker, scrunch up, crouch, get-down, hunch, scrunch, squat, hunch down and squat down.