hug
A close embrace, especially when charged with an emotion such as affection, joy, relief, lust, anger, aggression, compassion, or the like, as opposed to being characterized by formality, equivocation or ambivalence (a half-embrace).
Noun 2 meanings
A close embrace, especially when charged with an emotion such as affection, joy, relief, lust, anger, aggression, compassion, or the like, as opposed to being characterized by formality, equivocation or ambivalence (a half-embrace).
A particular grip in wrestling.
Verb 4 meanings
To cling closely together.
To embrace by holding closely, especially in the arms.
“Billy hugged Danny until he felt better.”
To stay close to.
“to hug the shore, to hug the coastline”
To hold fast; to cling to; to cherish.
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)).
Similar and opposite words
HUG at a glance
HUG has 3 letters and scores 7 points in Scrabble (H 4 + U 1 + G 2) and 8 in Words With Friends, before board bonuses. It ranks #6,050 by how often it appears in everyday English. It is valid in ENABLE, NWL2023, Collins/SOWPODS.
Rhymes with hug
All rhymes- THUG8
- CHUG10
- BEARHUG13
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