hug

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   a tight or amorous embrace

   come here and give me a big hug

2. 2
   verb

   fit closely or tightly

   The dress hugged their hips.

3. 3
   verb

   To crouch; to huddle as with cold.

   They had a slight breast work, and they hugged down behind it and waited.

4. 4
   verb

   To embrace by holding closely, especially in the arms.

   Billy hugged Danny until he felt better.

5. 5
   verb

   To stay close to.

   to hug the shore, to hug the coastline

6. 6
   verb

   To hold fast; to cling to; to cherish.

   We hug intellectual deformities, if they bear our names

7. 7
   verb

   squeeze (someone) tightly in your arms, usually with fondness

8. 8
   noun

   A close embrace, especially when charged with an emotion such as affection, joy, relief, lust, anger, aggression, compassion, and the like, as opposed to being characterized by formality, equivocation or ambivalence (a half-embrace or "little hug").

Etymology

From earlier hugge (“to embrace, clasp with the arms”) (1560), probably representing a conflation of huck (“to crouch, huddle down”) and Old Norse hugga (“to comfort, console”), from hugr (“mind, heart, thought”), from Proto-Germanic *hugiz (“mind, thought, sense”), cognate with Icelandic hugga (“to comfort”), Old English hyġe (“thought”) (whence high (Etymology 2)).