hang

• enPR: hăng, IPA^(key): /hæŋ/
  • (General American, Canada) IPA^(key): (see /æ/ raising) [heɪŋ]

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• Rhymes: -æŋ

A fusion of Old English hōn (“to hang, be hanging”) [intrans.] and hangian (“to hang, cause to hang”) [trans.]; also probably influenced by Old Norse hengja (“suspend”) and hanga (“be suspended”); all from Proto-Germanic *hanhaną (compare Dutch hangen, Low German hangen and hängen, German hängen, Norwegian Bokmål henge, Norwegian Nynorsk henga), from Proto-Indo-European *ḱenk- (“to waver, be in suspense”) (compare Gothic 𐌷𐌰𐌷𐌰𐌽 (hāhan), Hittite [Term?] (/gang-/, “to hang”), Sanskrit शङ्कते (śáṅkate, “is in doubt, hesitates”), Latin cunctari (“to delay”)) and Albanian çengë (“a hook”).

hang (third-person singular simple present hangs, present participle hanging, simple past and past participle hung or (archaic, legal) hanged)

1. (intransitive) To be or remain suspended.

   The lights hung from the ceiling.

   • 1913, Mrs. [Marie] Belloc Lowndes, chapter II, in The Lodger, London: Methuen, OCLC 7780546; republished in Novels of Mystery: The Lodger; The Story of Ivy; What Really Happened, New York, N.Y.: Longmans, Green and Co., 55 Fifth Avenue, [1933], OCLC 2666860, page 0111:

     On the dark-green walls hung a series of eight engravings, portraits of early Victorian belles, clad in lace and tarletan ball dresses, clipped from an old Book of Beauty. Mrs. Bunting was very fond of these pictures; she thought they gave the drawing-room a note of elegance and refinement.

2. (intransitive) To float, as if suspended.

   The smoke hung in the room.

3. (intransitive, of a ball in cricket, tennis, etc.) To rebound unexpectedly or unusually slowly, due to backward spin on the ball or imperfections of the ground.
4. (transitive) To hold or bear in a suspended or inclined manner or position instead of erect.

   He hung his head in shame.

5. (transitive) To cause (something) to be suspended, as from a hook, hanger, or the like.

   Hang those lights from the ceiling.

   1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), imprinted at London: By Robert Barker, […], OCLC 964384981, Luke 17:1-2:

   It is impossible but that offences will come: but woe unto him, through whom they come! It were better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and he cast into the sea, than that he should offend one of these little ones.

6. (transitive, law) To execute (someone) by suspension from the neck.

   The culprits were hanged from the nearest tree.

   • 1963, Margery Allingham, chapter 3, in The China Governess‎:

     ‘[…] There's every Staffordshire crime-piece ever made in this cabinet, and that's unique. The Van Hoyer Museum in New York hasn't that very rare second version of Maria Marten's Red Barn over there, nor the little Frederick George Manning—he was the criminal Dickens saw hanged on the roof of the gaol in Horsemonger Lane, by the way—’

7. (intransitive, law) To be executed by suspension by one's neck from a gallows, a tree, or other raised bar, attached by a rope tied into a noose.

   You will hang for this, my friend.

8. (intransitive, informal) To loiter, hang around, to spend time idly.

   Are you busy, or can you hang with me?  I didn't see anything, officer. I was just hanging.

9. (transitive) To exhibit (an object) by hanging.
10. (transitive) To apply (wallpaper or drywall to a wall).

    Let's hang this cute animal design in the nursery.

11. (transitive) To decorate (something) with hanging objects.

    Let's hang the nursery with some new wallpaper.

12. (intransitive, figuratively) To remain persistently in one's thoughts.
    • 1895, H. G. Wells, The Time Machine, Ch.X:

      Exploring, I found another short gallery running transversely to the first. This appeared to be devoted to minerals, and the sight of a block of sulphur set my mind running on gunpowder. But I could find no saltpeter; indeed no nitrates of any kind. Doubtless they had deliquesced ages ago. Yet the sulphur hung in my mind and set up a train of thinking.

13. (transitive) To prevent from reaching a decision, especially by refusing to join in a verdict that must be unanimous.

    One obstinate juror can hang a jury.

14. (intransitive, computing) To stop responding to manual input devices such as keyboard and mouse.

    The computer has hung again. Not even pressing <Ctrl>+<Alt>+<Del> works.  When I push this button the program hangs.

15. (transitive, computing) To cause (a program or computer) to stop responding.

    The program has a bug that can hang the system.

16. (transitive, chess) To cause (a piece) to become vulnerable to capture.

    If you move there, you'll hang your queen rook.

17. (intransitive, chess) To be vulnerable to capture.

    In this standard opening position White has to be careful because the pawn on e4 hangs.

18. (transitive, baseball, slang) Of a pitcher, to throw a hittable off-speed pitch.
    • 2010, Peter Golenbock, Dynasty: The New York Yankees, 1949-1964, →ISBN, page 409

      McDougald then singled, and with a 3-2 count on Ellie Howard who was playing first base, Spahn hung a curve ball and Howard hit it over the wire fence in left field for a 4-4 tie.

• Formerly, at least until the 16th century, the past tense of the transitive use of hang was hanged (see quote from King James Bible, above). This form is retained for the legal senses “to be executed by suspension from the neck” and “to execute by suspension from the neck” and hung for all other meanings. However, this rule is not uniformly understood or observed. Hung is sometimes substituted for hanged, which would be considered inappropriate in legal or other formal writing (for the applicable senses only) or, more rarely, vice versa. See also the etymology.

• (be or remain suspended): be suspended, dangle
• (float as if suspended): float, hover
• (execute (someone) by suspension from the neck): lynch, string up; see also Thesaurus:kill by hanging
• (be executed): go to the gallows, swing (informal), take a ride to Tyburn (archaic); see also Thesaurus:die by hanging
• (loiter): hang about, hang around, loiter
• (computing: stop responding): freeze, lock up
• (cause (something) to be suspended): suspend
• (hold or bear in a suspended or inclined manner or position instead of erect): drop, lower
• (to place on a hook): hook, hook up
• (to put a telephone handset back on a hook): hang up
• (exhibit): exhibit, show
• (apply (wallpaper to a wall)): put up
• (decorate (something) with hanging objects): bedeck, deck, decorate
• (computing: cause (a program or computer) to stop responding): freeze, lock up
• (in chess: cause to become vulnerable to capture):
• (in chess: be vulnerable to capture):

hang (plural hangs)

1. The way in which something hangs.

   This skirt has a nice hang.

2. (figuratively) A grip, understanding

   He got the hang of it after only two demonstrations

3. (computing) An instance of ceasing to respond to input devices.

   We sometimes get system hangs.

4. A sharp or steep declivity or slope.

• get the hang of

From hang sangwich, Irish colloquial pronunciation of ham sandwich.

hang (uncountable)

1. (Ireland, informal, derogatory) Cheap, processed ham (cured pork), often made specially for sandwiches.

hang (plural hangs)

1. Alternative spelling of Hang

• Ghan

From Dutch hangen.

hang (present hang, present participle hangende, past participle gehang)

1. (transitive and intransitive) to hang

From Dutch hang.

hang (plural hange)

1. slope

• helling

• halang

hang

1. hot; pungent; spicy

hang c (singular definite hangen, not used in plural form)

1. inclination or disposition towards something

   Manden har hang til raseri.

   The man is disposed towards rage.

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• Rhymes: -ɑŋ
• IPA^(key): /ɦɑŋ/

hang c (plural hangen, diminutive hangetje n)

1. A support for hanging objects, such as a nail for a picture frame
2. A place to dry or smoke produce
3. A tendency, knack

• hangijzer n

hang

1. first-person singular present indicative of hangen
2. imperative of hangen

Related to Finnish hanko.

hang (genitive [please provide], partitive [please provide])

1. fork

From an unattested stem with the suffix -g.

• IPA^(key): [ˈhɒŋɡ]

• Audio

  (file)

hang (plural hangok)

1. voice

   felemeli a hangját ― to raise one's voice

2. sound

   lépések hangja ― the sound of footsteps

hang f

1. h-prothesized form of ang

hang m (invariable)

1. (music) Hang

hang

1. Nonstandard spelling of hāng.
2. Nonstandard spelling of háng.
3. Nonstandard spelling of hǎng.
4. Nonstandard spelling of hàng.

• English transcriptions of Mandarin speech often fail to distinguish between the critical tonal differences employed in the Mandarin language, using words such as this one without the appropriate indication of tone.

hang

1. (intransitive) simple past of henge

hang

1. past of henga

From Proto-Vietic *haːŋ.

• (Hà Nội) IPA^(key): [haːŋ˧˧]
• (Huế) IPA^(key): [haːŋ˧˧]
• (Hồ Chí Minh City) IPA^(key): [haːŋ˧˧]

(classifier cái) hang

1. cave
2. den