hang
Definitions
General English
Computing
- verb to enter an endless loop and not respond to further instruction
Construction
Cricket
- noun loss of pace after pitching
- verb to lose pace after pitching and come on to the bat more slowly than expected, especially as a result of back spin imparted by the bowlerCitation ‘The ball that hangs or stops a bit after pitching instead of coming on is perhaps the most fatal ball that is bowled’ (Badminton 1888)
Food
- verb to suspend meat or a recently killed game animal until the flesh begins to decompose slightly and becomes more tender and highly flavoured
Law
- verb to execute someone by hanging him or her by a rope round the neck.
Slang
- verb to consort with, frequent. This black street usage is a shortening of the colloquialism ‘hang out’ and was adopted by white adolescents from the 1990s.
- verb to relax. This usage is probably a shortening of the phrase hang loose. Originating in black street slang, it was adopted by white adolescents from the 1990s.
Origin & History of “hang”
Hang is a general Germanic verb, represented also in German and Dutch hangen and Swedish hānga. these point back to a prehistoric Germanic *khang-, which some have linked with the Latin verb cunctārī ‘deal’. Hanker (17th c.) (which originally meant ‘loiter, hang about’) probably comes ultimately from the same source, as does hinge; but hangar ‘structure housing aircraft’ (19th c.) does not – it goes back via French hangar to medieval Latin angarium ‘shed in which horses are shod’.
