hang v.2
1. to be in difficulties; thus hanging, in great difficulties [sporting jargon hanging man, one who is facing great problems, usu. in the form of debts].
![[UK]](/static/img/flags/uk.png "United Kingdom") | Sl. Dict. 187: Hanging, in difficulties. A man who is in great straits, and who is, therefore, prepared to do anything desperate to retrieve his fortunes, is said, among sporting men, to be ‘a man hanging’, i.e. a man to whom any change must be for the better. | |
| Dict. of Sl., Jargon and Cant I 446/2: To hang (popular and sporting), to be in a desperate state. | |
![[US]](/static/img/flags/us.png "United States") | Red Badge of Courage (1964) 96: Gosh-dern it! [...] you’re the hangdest man I ever saw! |
2. (US) to impose upon, to blame, to make a criminal charge against [SE hang, to kill with a noose/hang, to put on a hook].
 | letter 10 Oct. in Tomlinson Rocky Mountain Sailor (1998) 150: One man may be doing his very best to keep out of trouble and another may be doing about as he pleases [...] and the former is just as liable to get hung for something of which he is not guilty as the latter is to receive his just reward . | |
| Sorrows of a Show Girl Ch. i: He’d better [...] hang the curfew on a few of those town romps. | |
| Classics in Sl. 16: We hang that she-devil Kate onto that poor boob Petruchio and what she’ll do to him will be a crime! | |
| et al. DAUL 90/2: Hang. 1. To be convicted of a criminal charge. 2. To inform or testify against an accomplice. [...] 3. (With ‘on’) To indict and convict. | |
| On the Yard (2002) 27: Then when they bust me he takes the stand and hangs me. | |
| Sir, You Bastard 88: The firm’ll stick up some bodies [and] you’ll hang them. | |
| At End of Day (2001) 72: Means this time we hang the bastards, using their own words. |
In phrases
(UK prison) to place blame on someone.
![[Ire]](/static/img/flags/ire.png "Ireland") | Tramp at Anchor 151: Nothing could be ‘hung on my door’ — blamed on me. |
1. (US) to bring a charge against a criminal, whether justified or not, to allot blame; often as hang one on.
| Racket Act II: They can’t hang this on you! | |
| Green Ice (1988) 34: Maybe they’ll try to hang the Dot kill on me yet. | |
| ‘No Harm Trying’ in Pat Hobby Stories (1967) 119: They weren’t trying to hang anything on him. | |
| Junkie (1966) 16: No one can hang anything on you for carrying US currency. | |
| Algiers Motel Incident 307: They were trying to hang these murders on me. | |
| Brown’s Requiem 22: I wasn’t thinking about hanging no morals rap on him. | |
| ‘Hot-Prowl Rape-O’ in Destination: Morgue! (2004) 313: I’m a note man and a breather. That’s my twenty-year M.O. Don’t try to hang no other shit on me. |
2. to name.
| in Heller In This Corner (1974) 76: He gave me that title [i.e. ‘The Toy Bulldog’] and it was one of the greatest titles ever hung on anybody in the ring. |
SE in slang uses
In compounds
an aimless person, a loiterer.
| Ups and Downs of a Crook’s Life 10: Mickey was one of the Tombs court ‘hangers-around,’ a sort of snide, who pretended to have a political pull [...] for getting people discharged. | |
| Reporter 181: Paul was a hang-around [...] he just liked to drift through the days. |
(W.I.) plentiful.
![[WI]](/static/img/flags/wi.png "West Indies") | cited in Dict. Jam. Eng. (1980). |
the penis (cf. hang-low n.).
| Queens’ Vernacular. | |
| Faggots 320: Front porch, gadget, hammer, hang-down. | |
| Ebonics Primer at www.dolemite.com 🌐 hang down Definition: penis Example: I am go by where my old lady stay to get some stank on my hang down. |
(UK prison) the room or building that holds the gallows.
| (con. 1940s) Borstal Boy 291: It was the last thing a bloke saw as ’e went out towards the ’ang-’ouse. |
a villain, a desperate looking person.
| , , | | Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue. |
| Lex. Balatronicum. |
see separate entry.
see separate entry.
(US) an idler.
| ‘The Man with the Golden Tongue’ in Deadly Streets (1983) 74: Neighborhood hang-ons who were minding their own business. |
In phrases
see under pin n.
see under pinch n.
(N.Z. prison) to hang oneself.
![[NZ]](/static/img/flags/nz.png "New Zealand") | Boobslang [U. Canterbury D.Phil. thesis] 84/1: hang v. ? hang around to commit suicide by hanging: ‘Don’t disturb him, he’s just hanging around. |
see under shanty n.1
(US black) to denigrate, to treat badly.
| ‘SWAP Dict. Teen-age Sl’ in Ebony Mar. 98/2: Hang five: downgrade someone — as ‘Be careful of her, she’ll hang five on you’. |
(Irish) to await eagerly, to look forward to.
| Glorious Heresies 211: [S]he’d brought him for a Big Mac and a milkshake, which he’d been hanging for all week. |
see separate entries.
to postpone marriage even after the banns have been read in church.
| in N&Q 3rd Ser. XII 91: The writer, in speaking of his intended marriage, says —‘So what so long has been hanging in the bell-ropes will at last be brought to a happy period’. |
to be undecided, usu. of a lawsuit.
| Dict. Canting Crew n.p.: It hangs in the Hedge, of a Law-suit or any thing else Depending, Undetermined. |
see separate entries.
see separate entries.
see separate entries.
see under ass n.
(US black) to take a risk.
| Do or Die (1992) 6: You wondered [...] how many of the kids on either side of you were going to hang themselves out in the name of reputation. |
to drink on credit.
| Whip and Satirist of N.Y. & Brooklyn 3/3: A young man [visited] Pinteux’s, and hanging up his face for drinks for the party, when he had but a pewter quarter in his possession. | |
| ‘Mrs. Sleek’ in Bard’s Offering 70: He strove, but in vain, for to hang his face up*: / But Mrs. Sleek upon no terms would stand it— (*A slang phrase for getting drink on credit). |
1. to make a commitment towards, to rely on.
| New Colorado 118: Why that’s my preacher. I hang my hat on him every time. | |
| (con. 1917–18) War Bugs 193: Still more Americanos boiled up to the front line and hung up their hats. | |
| ‘Bagpipe Music’ in Coll. Poems (1967) 97: It’s no go the Government grant, it’s no go the elections, / Sit on your arse for fifty years and hang your hat on a pension. | |
| One Lonely Night 59: I’ve never known you to hang your hat on anything but murder. | |
| Stonewall 302: Here was something a prosecutor might hang his hat on. |
2. (also hang one’s socks, hang up one’s hat) to live, to stay.
![[Aus]](/static/img/flags/aus.png "Australia") | Such is Life 231: Better hang your socks on Nosey Alf’s crook to-night. | |
| Babbitt (1974) 34: I know you’re interested in getting a house, not merely a place where you hang up the old bonnet but a love-nest for the wife and kiddies. | |
| ‘Nevada Gas’ in Spanish Blood (1946) 148: Where does he hang his hat? | |
| (con. 1948) Flee the Angry Strangers 77: Me? I can hang my hat in any ole land. | |
| Sir, You Bastard 86: Where the nepotic Jack and bright-eyed Benny hung their hats. | |
| Brown’s Requiem 53: Mark loved to save a buck and the attorneys he worked for didn’t care where he hung his hat. | |
| (con. 1940s–60s) Straight from the Fridge Dad. |
to become engaged; thus hang one’s hat up to, to propose to a woman; hanging one’s hat up, engaged.
| Sport (Adelaide) 20 Mar. 4/6: Adelaide B is trying to hang her hat up to Joe A. No good, Ad., he is booked . | |
| ‘Stone the Crows’ in Rose of Spadgers 121: I’d ’arf a mind / To ’ave a shave an’ ’ang me ’at up there. | |
| Scholarly Mouse and other Tales 64: Has your boss a wife, bud? [...] You could make him mad if you hung your hat up there. |
see jib n.1 (2)
to look miserable; to pout.
| Sl. and Its Analogues. |
(UK prison) to make a ‘dirty protest’, i.e. to smear one’s body and cell with one’s excrement.
| Raiders 155: ‘Hanging one up’ is prison slang for going on a dirty protest [...] covering your cell and, in many cases, yourself in your own shit. |
(US black) of a woman, to impose upon or bother another woman.
| ‘What Artist do you want to see in Charleston’ posting 23 Dec. on RawDoggEntertainment 🌐 What I do, or the names that I have been given are irrelevant. I have enough trouble trying to hold up my 38 D’s, I do not need you hanging on my bra strap too. |
see separate entries.
see under paper n.
(orig. US) to treat someone particularly harshly; to make an example of someone.
| Life in Boston & N.Y. (Boston, MA) 8 Oct. n.p.: We know a thing or two, and might ‘hang you up to dry’. | |
| Reporter 101: The court [...] decreed that her thrice-burned soul should be hung up to dry on the ramparts. | |
| On the Yard (2002) 239: He was strung out. Up tight, up tight. They hung him out to dry and he puked us both up. | |
| Street Players 157: There are a few people who like to hang your ass up to dry. | |
| (con. 1949) True Confessions (1979) 96: We got the mayor here, and the chief [...] they want to hang you out to dry, get their names in the paper. | |
| Full Cleveland 194: It was me that had to split before I got hung out to dry [HDAS]. | |
| Big Ask 288: Ange’s allies on the public office selection committee had hung him out to dry. | |
| ‘The Detail’ Wire ser. 1 ep. 2 [TV script] I didn’t think you were going to straight up hang me out on a line in a shitstorm. | |
| Alphaville (2011) 238: You’ll do something that the department can’t ignore and they will hang you out to dry [...] You don’t need that bullshit. | |
| Scrublands [ebook] Snouch will take him to the cleaners and the Herald will hang him out to dry. | |
| Watergate 199: [T]he chief of staff explained that it wouldn’t be easy to hang the burglars out to dry entirely. | |
| Secret Hours 315: ‘Help me catch this bastard and you can hang me out to dry afterwards’. |
(US) to be very important; thus think one hung the moon, to think very highly of oneself.
| Down in the Holler 250: Lucy thinks that fool boy of hern is God’s own cousin! She thinks he hung the moon! | |
| Boy Who Followed Ripley (1981) 316: I’m sure Frank would. He thinks you hung the moon, Tom. |
see separate entries.
In exclamations
1. good luck!
| Sl. U. |
2. wait! [joc. pron. of hang about! excl.].
| Sl. U. |
see separate entry.
(Aus.) wait a moment!
| Neddy (1998) 285: I started to walk out the front when my mate grabbed my arm. ‘Hang five there, Ned. Look over there. See those big young guys standing waiting there?’. |
(US campus) don’t bother! forget it!
| Current Sl. I:4. | |
| CBer’s Handy Atlas/Dictionary 28/1: hang it (in your ear) - Used as an acceptable epithet, meaning essentially ‘go jump in the lake.’. |
(US) an excl. of contempt, often accompanied by a gesture, the right forefinger is hooked over the left thumb, which is making a circle with the left forefinger.
| Ozark Folksongs and Folklore I 236: Authentic Colorado police ‘Eleven Code,’ for Citizen Band broadcast messages [...] 11-21 Hang it on your ass. |