hug

Meanings

Noun

• A close embrace, especially when charged with such an emotion as represented by: 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").
• A particular grip in wrestling.

Verb

• To crouch; huddle as with cold.
• To cling closely together.
• To embrace by holding closely, especially in the arms.
• To stay close to (the shore etc.)
• To hold fast; to cling to; to cherish.

Related

Similar words

• hunker, squat, stoop
• treasure

Origin

• From earlier hugge (1560), probably representing a conflation of huck and Old Norse hugga, from hugr, from Proto-Germanic *hugiz, cognate with Icelandic hugga, Old English hyġe (whence high (Etymology 2)).