hanger

[hang-er]

noun

1. a shoulder-shaped frame with a hook at the top, usually of wire, wood, or plastic, for draping and hanging hang a garment when not in use.

2. a part of something by which it is hung, hung, as a loop on a garment.

3. a contrivance on which things are hung, hung, as a hook.

4. Automotive.,  a double-hinged device linking the chassis with the leaf springs on vehicles having solid axles.

5. a light saber of the 17th and 18th centuries, often worn by sailors.

6. a person who hangs something.

hanger

/ ˈhæŋə /

noun

1. 1. any support, such as a hook, strap, peg, or loop, on or by which something may be hung

   2. See coat hanger

2. 1. a person who hangs something

   2. ( in combination )

      paperhanger

3. a bracket designed to attach one part of a mechanical structure to another, such as the one that attaches the spring shackle of a motor car to the chassis

4. a wood on a steep hillside, characteristically beech growing on chalk in southern England

5. 1. a loop or strap on a sword belt from which a short sword or dagger was hung

   2. the weapon itself

Word History and Origins

Origin of hanger¹

1400–50; late Middle English hangere; hang, -er ¹

Example Sentences

A director of national intelligence who’s shown no great abundance of that quality but, rather, an eagerness to twist and bend facts like a coat hanger, serving whatever cockamamie claim the president burps up.

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Her long-term partner, Prudence Fenton, explains in the film that she was allotted “this much” drawer space and two coat hangers when she moved in.

Read more on Salon

“He likes cliff hangers. He loves to tell us to stay tuned for the next exciting episode and we fall for it every time,” a White House reporter explained.

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I had entered a kind of demon mode, manically grabbing things off hangers and throwing them on the floor.

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“I can’t believe I’m getting out,” she told a caseworker over the phone, scanning her clothes hangers, handbags, space heater, and flower pots.

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Related Words

• blade 
• dagger 
• saber