hang

Meanings

1. 1
   verb

   To attach something at the top so the rest hangs down freely.

   She hung her coat on the hook by the door.

2. 2
   verb

   To hold on to something tightly.

   Hang on to the rope and don't let go.

3. 3
   verb

   To fall or drape in a particular way.

   This dress hangs beautifully.

4. 4
   verb

   To kill someone by hanging them from a rope around the neck.

   In the past, criminals were sometimes hanged for serious crimes.

Multiword verbs with hang

• hang around Phrasal verb B1

  to stay in a place without doing much or having an obvious purpose

Appears in

Simplified etymology

Hang is an Old English word. In its punitive sense it originally referred to crucifixion and only later came to mean execution with a rope; hanged remains the past form in that sense, while hung first appeared in the 16th century.

From Middle English hangen, hongen, from a fusion of Old English hōn (“to hang, be hanging”, transitive verb) and hangian (“to hang, cause to hang”, intransitive verb), respectively from the transitive verb Proto-West Germanic *hą̄han and the intransitive verb *hangēn; also probably influenced by Old Norse hengja (“to suspend”) and hanga (“to be suspended”); all from Proto-Germanic *hanhaną and *hangāną, from Proto-Indo-European *ḱenk- (“to waver, be in suspense”). See also Dutch hangen, Low German hangen and hängen, German hängen, Norwegian Bokmål henge, Norwegian Nynorsk henga; also Gothic 𐌷…

Topics

External links

• Google Images
• Cambridge Dictionary
• Wiktionary