hang v.4
1. (US) to behave, usu. in combs., e.g. hang loose v.; hang tough v.
![[US]](/static/img/flags/us.png "United States") | Love Sonnets of a Hoodlum XXI n.p.: I went to hang smile in front of me, But weeps were in my glimmers when I tried. | |
![[UK]](/static/img/flags/uk.png "United Kingdom") | (con. 1940s) Do Not Go Gentle (1962) 210: Hang easy, buddy. | |
| Skin Tight 14: You want me to hang close today? | |
| (con. 1985–90) In Search of Respect 43: I saw the way you was hanging; and I got to know you better. |
2. to endure, to suffer, to handle pressure.
| Blind Ambition 240: My man is not going to hang out here alone. You owe him that. | |
| Campus Sl. Spring 3: hang – to last, to keep going, especially when drinking, smoking marijuana, or partying hard: He can’t hang. | |
| Straight Outta Compton 65: ‘How you been, Dopehead?’ [...] ‘I’m hangin’’. | |
| Check the Technique 464: ‘I play [chess], but I’m not as obsessed as RZA and GZA. They'll go twenty games straight, but I can’t hang like that’. |
3. to leave someone waiting.
| Life and Times of Little Richard 129: He let me hang for a couple of minutes; then he said, ‘That’s Maurice James’. |
In phrases
see separate entries.
(US) to sit, to wait, esp. under pressure.
![[Aus]](/static/img/flags/aus.png "Australia") | Sport (Adelaide) 6 Sept. 10/4: They Say [...] That Cel H [...] kidded herself with her new boy at the football last Saturday. Hang tight, he’s a nice boy, Celia. | |
| Buckaroo’s Code (1948) 13: If you want to hang tight and get a dose of hot lead, it’s your business. | |
| Going After Cacciato (1980) 70: Hang tight and we’ll have you out of here, pronto. | |
| ‘Soldier’s Joy’ in Back in the World 110: He said that Porchoff was [...] threatening to shoot Trac if Trac tried to stop him. [...] ‘Just hang tight,’ Hooper told him. | |
![[Can]](/static/img/flags/can.png "Canada") | (con. 1920s) Legs 126: Hang tight, here they come with a fist full of soft. | |
| Makes Me Wanna Holler (1995) 189: He’d warned me to hang tight with my homies to keep hassles away. | |
 | Power to the People 79: ‘Hang tight.’ ‘I’m hanging. . . don’t know how tight but I’m hanging.’. |
see separate entries.
1. (US) to associate with, to spend time with.
| Tobacco Road (1958) 27: Lov’s wanting to hang up with Ellie May. | |
| Golden Spike 144: I can hang with anyone, no matter what they do, but that doesn’t make me the same as them. | |
| Howard Street 100: He’d known that Jimmy was hanging with a gang. | |
| Stand (1990) 251: Vince had been one of them, [...] someone they hung with. | |
| (con. 1964–73) Bloods (1985) 4: There was only two black guys in my platoon [...] So I hung with the Mexicans. | |
| ‘Bitches Ain’t Shit’ 🎵 But she was hangin’ with a white bitch doin’ the shit she do. | |
| (con. late 1950s) Amaze Your Friends (2019) 10: ‘Why don’t you hang with us? We’re going to get all messed up’. | |
| ‘Fade To . . . Brooklyn’ in Brooklyn Noir 309: I got to hang with them as I had a rep for armed robbery. | |
| Viva La Madness 18: It was good to hang with Mort in the Caribbean. | |
| Star (Jamaica) 1 Sept. 🌐 Your boyfriend gave you a key which meant yu could ‘show up’ [...] without announcing your intention to come and hang with him. | |
| Orphan Road 73: ‘You going to have to drop that shit [i.e. nitrous oxide], mate, you want to hang with me’. | |
| Empty Wigs (t/s) 300: [P]eople you’d enjoy to hang with. |
2. (US) to handle a situation, to endure.
| Campus Sl. Nov. 3: hang – to be able to cope with a situation: I can’t hang with partying all night. | |
| Campus Sl. Fall 3: hang – make it, endure, put up with, settle for. | |
| Pugilist at Rest 219: ‘I can hang with anybody.’ ‘You can hang with the big guy?’ ‘I can hang with anybody!’. | |
| The World Don’t Owe Me Nothing 192: I had to buy him wine all the time till finally I said, ‘Man, I just can’t hang with this. I ain't got the money’. |
(US black) what do you think?
| Queens View Affair Bk II Act VII 🌐 Perhaps Alice could be an acrobat, and Clint a strongman act, Chastity a Clown and the Colonel could do the human cannon ball? How does that hang with everybody? |
In exclamations
(US) take it easy!
| AS XXIX 97: See you later. Hang it easy! | |
| Do Not Go Gentle 199: Hang easy, buddy [HDAS]. |