hug

From earlier Middle English hugge (“to embrace”) (1560), probably representing a conflation of huck (“to crouch, huddle down”) and Old Norse hugga (“to comfort, console”), from hugr (“courage”), from Proto-Germanic *hugiz (“mind, sense”), cognate with Icelandic hugga (“to comfort”), Old English hyge (“thought, mind, heart, disposition, intention, courage, pride”).

• enPR: hŭg, IPA^(key): /hʌɡ/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ʌɡ

hug (plural hugs)

1. An affectionate close embrace.
2. A particular grip in wrestling.

hug (third-person singular simple present hugs, present participle hugging, simple past and past participle hugged)

1. (intransitive, obsolete) To crouch; huddle as with cold.

   (Can we find and add a quotation of Palsgrave to this entry?)

2. (intransitive) To cling closely together.
3. (transitive) To embrace by holding closely, especially in the arms.

   Billy hugged Danny until he felt better.

4. (transitive) To stay close to (the shore etc.)
   • 1913, Joseph C. Lincoln, chapter 8, in Mr. Pratt's Patients:

     We toted in the wood and got the fire going nice and comfortable. Lord James still set in one of the chairs and Applegate had cabbaged the other and was hugging the stove.

5. (transitive, figuratively) To hold fast; to cling to; to cherish.
   • Glanvill

     We hug deformities if they bear our names.

• (crouch): hunker, squat, stoop
• (cling closely): cleave, stick; see also Thesaurus:adhere
• (embrace): accoll (obsolete), coll, embrace
• (stay close to):
• (hold fast): treasure

• body-hugging
• figure-hugging
• hug oneself

• cuddle
• huggle
• kiss
• snuggle
• squeeze

• Ghu, ghu, ugh

From Old Norse hǫgg, verbal noun to hǫggva (“to hew”), via the verb hugge.

hug n (singular definite hugget, plural indefinite hug)

1. stroke
2. slash
3. cut

hug (only one form)

1. squat

hug

1. imperative of hugge

• “hug” in Den Danske Ordbog
• “hug,2” in Den Danske Ordbog

hug m

1. Indefinite accusative singular of hugur
2. thought, sense, spirit
3. desire, interest

hug

1. to

hug

1. past tense of toyr

From Old Norse hugr

• IPA^(key): /hʉːɡ/

hug m (definite singular hugen, indefinite plural hugar, definite plural hugane)

1. mind
2. wish, desire
   • 1971, Olav H. Hauge, "T'ao Ch'ien":

     Meir enn fyrr har han hug å draga seg attende til ein slik hageflekk.

     More than before, he has a desire to retreat to such a small garden.

• samhug

• “hug” in The Nynorsk Dictionary.