hang
hang Lexical Profile
hang Game Scores & Validity
• verb
To suspend or be suspended from above with the lower part dangling free and unsupported.
"We decided to hang the framed landscape above the living room mantelpiece."
To let droop or incline downward (such as one's head or ears).
"The exhausted runner had to hang his head while catching his breath after the race."
To remain static or suspended in the air (such as smoke, fog, or a lingering scent).
"Thick mist continued to hang over the valley throughout the chilly morning."
To unexpectedly stop responding to input or cease functioning (of a computer program or system).
"The application tends to hang whenever I try to export a very large video file."
To execute or kill someone by suspending them by the neck from a rope or gallows (with past tense and past participle 'hanged').
"In previous centuries, courts would routinely hang convicted pirates at the docks."
• noun
A practical understanding of how to do, operate, or use something (chiefly in the phrase 'get the hang of').
"Riding a bicycle seems tricky at first, but you will quickly get the hang of it."
The way in which a garment, curtain, or fabric falls, drapes, or suspends.
"The tailor adjusted the hem to improve the hang of the wool trousers."
Word Nuance & Usage
The past tense and past participle of 'hang' is 'hung' for almost all meanings (e.g., 'she hung the painting'), whereas 'hanged' is used specifically in the sense of executing or killing someone by suspension from the neck.
• Rhymes for hang
Word Origin & Etymology
Middle English 'hangen', representing a convergence of Old English 'hōn' (transitive), Old English 'hangian' (intransitive), and Old Norse 'hanga', all tracing back to the Proto-Germanic root *hanhan ('to suspend').