hang v.3
1. to loiter, to stand around aimlessly, to relax.
![[US]](/static/img/flags/us.png "United States") | ‘Underworld Blues’ 🎵 I can’t see how some of these women sleep / I can’t see how some of these women sleep / They hangs on the corner like a police on his beat. | |
| Little Caesar (1932) 21: How come you hang after Rico? | |
| ‘The Jollity Building’ in Telephone Booth Indian (2004) 37: To hang, in Indian language, means to loiter. ‘I used to hang in Forty-sixth Street, in front of Variety.’. | |
| Man with the Golden Arm 152: This is gettin’ to be a good play to hang away from. | |
![[UK]](/static/img/flags/uk.png "United Kingdom") | Cross of Lassitude 243: ‘Where d’you hang?’ ‘Oh, Perry’s, or The Palace, or at my girl-friend Margie’s.’. | |
| ‘Time and cool people’ in Trans-action 4 11/1: Street people are known also by their activities—‘duking’ (fighting or at least looking tough), ‘hustling’ (any way of making money outside the ‘legitimate’ world of work), ‘gigging’ (partying)—and by their apparent nonactivity, ‘hanging’ on the corner. | |
![[Aus]](/static/img/flags/aus.png "Australia") | Puberty Blues 4: We just started hanging at North Cronulla. | |
| (con. 1982–6) Cocaine Kids (1990) 105: When word gets out on the street that a particular place is dangerous, that only the toughest can ‘hang’ there, it becomes the ‘in’ place. | |
| Makes Me Wanna Holler (1995) 33: We had a ball. We were hanging. | |
| (con. 1970s) King Suckerman (1998) 111: She wanted to spend the day hanging at the circle. | |
| Mud Crab Boogie (2013) [ebook] ‘Just hanging at home all day’. | |
| ‘Grave Doubt’ in Destination: Morgue! (2004) 83: They know the shooter [...] He hangs near their pad. | |
| Luck in the Greater West (2008) 35: Anyway, next time we hang, he said to bring you. | |
| Life 33: You could hang there all weekend. | |
| ‘Having Chiqui’ in ThugLit July-Aug. [ebook] [T]hey could hang down in Philly with Luis’s cousin. | |
| Joe Country [ebook] Stopping for a drink, huh? Hanging with your mates? | |
| ‘Crime 101’ in Broken 99: ‘Says he’s got a guy hanging outside who’s wrong’. |
2. to inhabit, to live.
| Slam! 132: I cut toward where he hung. All the time I’m walking down to his crib I’m thinking how I know I should talk to him. | |
| Point of Origin (1999) 191: This is the sort of neighborhood she would hang in. | |
| Autobiog. of My Dead Brother 102: [I]f all you’re going to do is hang in the hood, [school] don’t mean nothing. |
In compounds
see hang n.4 (2)
In phrases
(US black gang) a phr. used to describe the gangsta n. lifestyle: associating with one’s friends and fellow gangsters, fighting with other gangs and selling drugs.
| L.A. Times 29 Feb. 24/4: A coimmon description olf the three gang pastimes is ‘Hangin’, bangin’ and slangin’.’ [...] spending time on the streets, fighting other gangs and selling (or ‘slinging’) narcotics. | |
| Do or Die (1992) 97: I ask if she was a homegirl at one time. She smiles at the qustion. ‘Yeah, sure I was. [...] I was hangin’, bangin’ and slangin’ with the best of ’em.’. |