Hug
noun, verb ·Common ·High school level
Definitions
- 1 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").
- 2 a tight or amorous embrace wordnet
- 3 A particular grip in wrestling.
- 1 To crouch; to huddle as with cold. intransitive, obsolete
"They had a slight breast work, and they hugged down behind it and waited."
- 2 fit closely or tightly wordnet
- 3 To cling closely together. intransitive
- 4 hold (someone) tightly in your arms, usually with fondness wordnet
- 5 To embrace by holding closely, especially in the arms. reciprocal, transitive
"Billy hugged Danny until he felt better."
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- 6 To stay close to. transitive
"to hug the shore, to hug the coastline"
- 7 To hold fast; to cling to; to cherish. figuratively, transitive
"We hug intellectual deformities, if they bear our names"
Example
More examples"Even though it's against company policy, Tom and Mary kiss and hug every time they meet."
Etymology
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)).
Related phrases
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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.