hung
1 Americanverb
adjective
idioms
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hung up on,
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obsessed by.
a clerk hung up on petty details.
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infatuated with.
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hung over. hungover.
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hung up,
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detained unavoidably.
They were hung up in bad traffic and missed their flight.
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stymied or baffled by a problem.
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Baseball, Softball. (of a base runner) trapped between bases and in danger of being tagged out.
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abbreviation
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Hungarian. Also Hung
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Hungary.
verb
adjective
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(of a legislative assembly) not having a party with a working majority
a hung parliament
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unable to reach a decision
a hung jury
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(of a situation) unable to be resolved
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informal suffering from the effects of a hangover
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slang
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impeded by some difficulty or delay
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in a state of confusion; emotionally disturbed
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slang obsessively or exclusively interested in
he's hung up on modern art these days
abbreviation
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Hungarian
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Hungary
Usage
See hang.
For most senses of hang the past tense and past participle is hung : I hung the curtains; he had hung the new painting on the wall . However, when the meaning is 'to suspend or be suspended by the neck until dead', the past tense and past participle is hanged : the traitors were hanged; they had hanged him at dawn . This form is also used in the idiom I'll be hanged
Other Word Forms
- unhung adjective
Etymology
Origin of hung
First recorded in 1635–45, for the adjective
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
One owner with his own architect filed his initial application in May and was hung up in planning until March.
From Los Angeles Times
He has already hung portraits of himself inside the White House, breaking with the tradition that a president wait until the end of his term to be invited by a successor to unveil a portrait.
From Barron's
That particular playdate had left us with something more like a corn octopus that was far too heavy to be hung.
From Literature
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I sat for a while after he hung up on me, mourning the Dad I never had, as if the loss was new, rather than forever, before my grief turned into white-hot fury.
From Literature
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Clare, for example, had strung the ceiling with rows and rows of twine, from which freshly cut mushrooms hung to dry.
From Literature
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Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.