noun, slang ·Moderate ·High school level

Definitions

Noun

1. 1
   An emotional difficulty or a psychological inhibition. informal

   "Near-synonyms: neurosis, obsession, complex"

2. 2
   an unforeseen obstacle wordnet
3. 3
   An unforeseen obstacle to progress; a hitch or delay.

   "Near-synonym: setback"

4. 4
   an emotional preoccupation wordnet

Synonyms

All synonyms

afterthoughtbindblockblockadebottleneckcatch

Example

More examples

"She's got a hang-up about me being perfect."

Etymology

From hang up (verb).

Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.