noun, verb ·Common ·High school level
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"They had a slight breast work, and they hugged down behind it and waited."
"Billy hugged Danny until he felt better."
"to hug the shore, to hug the coastline"
"We hug intellectual deformities, if they bear our names"
"Even though it's against company policy, Tom and Mary kiss and hug every time they meet."
A close embrace, especially when charged with an emotion such as affection, joy, relief, lust, anger, aggression, compassion, and the like, as opposed to being characterized by formality, equivocation or ambivalence (a half-embrace or "little hug").
Common synonyms include: embrace, abduct, accost, accueil, acquire, address.
Even though it's against company policy, Tom and Mary kiss and hug every time they meet.
Pronounced /hʌɡ/.
From earlier hugge (“to embrace, clasp with the arms”) (1560), probably representing a conflation of huck (“to crouch, huddle down”) and Old Norse hugga (“to comfort, console”), from hugr (“mind, heart, thought”), from Proto-Germanic *hugiz (“mind, thought, sense”), cognate with Icelandic hugga (“to comfort”), Old English hyġe (“thought”) (whence high (Etymology 2)).