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Vinony

hug

verb

  1. put arms around the neck, back, or waist of one another and hold each other closely
  2. hug, embrace
L4135 on Wikidata ↗

noun

  1. form of endearment, universal in human communities, in which two or more people put their arms around the neck, back, or waist of one another and hold each other closely
L4136 on Wikidata ↗

Wiktionary

Pronunciation: /hʌɡ/ / /hʊɡ/

noun

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)).

  1. A close embrace, especially when charged with an emotion such as 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").
  2. A particular grip in wrestling.

verb

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)).

  1. To crouch; to huddle as with cold.

    “They had a slight breast work, and they hugged down behind it and waited.”

    “That is why they are so little known and never explored. During the day, when a Chilean cruiser nosed around uncomfortably close, the little sloop would be hugged under the lee of one of the islands, sail lowered and anchor dropped.”

  2. To cling closely together.
  3. To embrace by holding closely, especially in the arms.

    “Billy hugged Danny until he felt better.”

    “They hugged for what seemed like an eternity.”

  4. To stay close to.

    “to hug the shore, to hug the coastline”

    “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. To hold fast; to cling to; to cherish.

    “We hug intellectual deformities, if they bear our names”