HANG ON

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does hang on mean? 

• HANG ON (verb)
  The verb HANG ON has 3 senses:

1. fix to; attach

2. be persistent, refuse to stop

3. hold the phone line open

  Familiarity information: HANG ON used as a verb is uncommon.

 Dictionary entry details 

• HANG ON (verb)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Fix to; attach

Classified under:

Verbs of touching, hitting, tying, digging

Synonyms:

append; hang on; tack; tack on; tag on

Context example:

append a charm to the necklace

Hypernyms (to "hang on" is one way to...):

attach (cause to be attached)

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "hang on"):

subjoin (add to the end)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s something
Somebody ----s something to somebody

Sense 2

Meaning:

Be persistent, refuse to stop

Classified under:

Verbs of size, temperature change, intensifying, etc.

Synonyms:

hang in; hang on; hold on; persevere; persist

Context example:

The child persisted and kept asking questions

Hypernyms (to "hang on" is one way to...):

bear on; carry on; continue; preserve; uphold (keep or maintain in unaltered condition; cause to remain or last)

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "hang on"):

obstinate (persist stubbornly)

ask for it; ask for trouble (persist with actions or an attitude despite the probability that it will cause trouble)

plug; plug away (persist in working hard)

follow; stick to; stick with (keep to)

Sentence frames:

Something ----s
Somebody ----s
Something is ----ing PP

Sense 3

Meaning:

Hold the phone line open

Classified under:

Verbs of telling, asking, ordering, singing

Synonyms:

hang on; hold on; hold the line

Context example:

Please hang on while I get your folder

Hypernyms (to "hang on" is one way to...):

await; expect; look; wait (look forward to the probable occurrence of)

"Hang on" entails doing...:

call; call up; phone; ring; telephone (get or try to get into communication (with someone) by telephone)

Domain category:

telephone; telephony (transmitting speech at a distance)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s

 Context examples 

“He must hang on his own yard,” said Sir Nigel.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

“Grab hold of something and hang on,” the red-faced man said to me.

(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)

And now, when I speak, you check the thought unuttered on your lips and hang on my lips and pay respectful attention to whatever I choose to say.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

Can you tell me why in the Pampas, ay and elsewhere, there are bats that come at night and open the veins of cattle and horses and suck dry their veins; how in some islands of the Western seas there are bats which hang on the trees all day, and those who have seen describe as like giant nuts or pods, and that when the sailors sleep on the deck, because that it is hot, flit down on them, and then—and then in the morning are found dead men, white as even Miss Lucy was?

(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)

It's unclear, say D'Odorico and Okin, whether the Kalahari's dunes hang on the edge of a tipping point between their current state—vegetated fixed linear dunes—or have moved to what researchers call a degraded state, barren and active dunes.

(Sleeping sands of the Kalahari awaken after more than 10,000 years, NSF)

When you get a dollar, hang on to it. A man who leaves his money lying around, the way you did, deserves to lose it.

(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)