hung

1. 1
   verb

   Simple past and past participle of hang, except when referring to execution, where hanged is used.

   He hung the laundry out to dry before the rain came.

   The portrait had hung in the gallery for decades.

   Note

   The everyday form of an irregular verb: one spelling serves as both the simple past and the participle, so he hung the laundry and the portrait had hung for decades share it. It works with or without an object (hung a picture, mist hung low). Only the gallows takes a different form, and using hung there is the broader, frowned-upon usage.

2. 2
   adjective

   Suspended in place by being attached or held from above rather than resting on a support.

   The hung tapestry swayed slightly in the draft from the window.

   Workers steadied the newly hung sign before bolting it down.

   Similarsuspended

3. 3
   adjective

   Of a jury, unable to reach the unanimous verdict required to decide a trial.

   A hung jury forced the prosecution to decide whether to retry the defendant.

   The trial ended with a hung jury after one juror refused to change his vote.

   Similardivided, split

   Oppositeunanimous

   Note

   A courtroom term, nearly always met in the fixed phrase hung jury, though a jury can also be said to be hung after the vote (the jury was hung). It does not normally grade: a jury is not more or less hung, only deadlocked or not. The image is of a decision left suspended, which ties it to the literal "suspended" adjective.

4. 4
   adjective

   Of a legislature in which no single political party holds a majority of the seats.

   The close election produced a hung parliament, forcing rival parties into negotiations.

   With the council hung, no group could pass its budget alone.

   Note

   Election-night vocabulary: the fixed phrase is hung parliament, but the word fits any elected body, such as a hung council or a hung assembly, and it also works after the verb (the council is hung). Like the deadlocked jury, it names a body that cannot settle things on its own. Here what stays unsettled is who governs.

5. 5
   adjectivecolloquial

   Of a computer or similar device that has power but stops responding or runs very slowly, a state often cleared by restarting it.

   The server stayed hung until an engineer restarted it.

   A hung application can usually be closed and reopened to fix the problem.

   Similarfrozen, unresponsive, stuck, locked

   Oppositeresponsive

   Note

   Shop talk for a machine that is still switched on but no longer answers, or answers only at a crawl. It applies to whole devices and to single programs alike (a hung server, a hung application). Because it is colloquial, it suits conversation among users and engineers more than formal documentation. The cure it implies is a restart rather than a repair.

6. 6
   adjectivecolloquial

   Of a man, having a large penis, frequently in the intensified phrase well hung.

   Rumor among the cast was that the lead actor was famously well hung.

   She remarked offhandedly that her new boyfriend was hung.

   Similarendowed

   Note

   Slang about the body, and mildly vulgar, said of a person. Well hung is the usual form, though hung alone carries the same meaning. It belongs to frank, joking or flirtatious talk. In polite company or formal writing it reads as crude, and adding well intensifies it rather than softening it.

7. 7
   adjective

   Having additions or appendages that hang down from the main body.

   The festival tent was hung with streamers and paper lanterns.

   Her ceremonial robe was hung with beads and dangling charms.

   Similarfestooned, draped, decorated, adorned, decked

8. 8
   verbnonstandard

   Simple past and past participle of hang in the sense of executing by hanging. This use is often considered incorrect; hanged is the standard form.

   According to local legend, two horse thieves were hung from that oak in 1871.

   The pirate captain was tried, convicted, and hung within a week.

   Note

   Here hung reaches the gallows too, a use now marked as an error in careful English. It has a long pedigree: John Taperell's A New Miscellany (1731) names the tree "whereon Judas hung himself", and Harper's Weekly in 1884 ran the punning line "A murderer hung in time saves nine." When writing about executions, keep to hanged. For pictures, laundry and mist, hung is always right.

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