1
general::
Phrase(s): hang up
1. [for a machine or a computer] to grind to a halt; to stop because of some internal complication. • Our computer hung up right in the middle of printing the report. • I was afraid that my computer would hang up permanently. 2. to replace the telephone receiver after a call; to terminate a telephone call. • I said good-bye and hung up. • Please hang up and place your call again., Phrase(s): hang up (in someone’s ear)
Go to hang up (on someone or something) 1. and hang up (in someone's ear), Phrase(s): hang up (on someone or something) 1. [and] hang up (in someone’s ear)
to end a telephone call by returning the receiver to the cradle while the other party is still talking. • She hung up on me! • I had to hang up on all that rude talk. 2. to give up on someone or something; to quit dealing with someone or something. • Finally, I had to hang up on Jeff. I can’t depend on him for anything. • We hung up on them because we knew we couldn’t make a deal., Phrase(s): hang something up
to return the telephone receiver to its cradle. (See also hang it up.) • Please hang this up when I pick up the other phone. • Please hang up the phone.
McGrawhill's American Idioms And Phrasal Verbs
2
general::
1. Suspend on a hook or hanger, as in Let me hang up your coat for you. [c. 1300] 2. Also, hang up on. Replace a telephone receiver in its cradle; end a phone conversation. For example, She hung up the phone, or He hung up on her. [Early 1900s] 3. Delay or hinder; also, become halted or snagged, as in Budget problems hung up the project for months, or Traffic was hung up for miles. [Second half of 1800s] 4. Have or cause to have emotional difficulties, as in Being robbed at gun-point can hang one up for years to come. [Slang; early 1900s] 5. hung up on. Obsessed with, as in For years the FBI was hung up on Communist spies. [First half of 1900s] 6. hang up one's sword or gloves or fiddle. Quit, retire, as in He's hanging up his sword next year and moving to Florida. The noun in these expressions refers to the profession one is leaving?? sword for the military, gloves for boxing, and fiddle for musicbut they all are used quite loosely as well, as in the example. 7. hang up one's hat. Settle somewhere, reside, as in "Eight hundred a year, and as nice a house as any gentleman could wish to hang up his hat in" (Anthony Trollope, The Warden, 1855).
American Heritage Idioms