Word.ws English Dictionary

hang-by

hang-by noun: a dependent; a hanger-on.

Noun

hang-by (plural hang-bys or hang-bies)

  1. (derogatory, obsolete) A dependent; a hanger-on.
    • ; I am not afraid of you nor them neither, your hang-by's here. You must have your poets, and your potlings; your solados and foolados; to follow you up and down the city1598, Beniamin Ionson [i.e., Ben Jonson], “Euery Man in His Humour. A Comœdie. […]”, in The Workes of Beniamin Ionson (First Folio), London: […] Will[iam] Stansby, published 1616, →OCLC, (please...

Forms of hang-by

pluralhang-bys
pluralhang-bies

Origin of hang-by

From hang + by.

Questions about hang-by

What does hang-by mean?
Hang-by means a dependent; a hanger-on.
What part of speech is hang-by?
Hang-by is a noun.
What is the plural of hang-by?
The plural of hang-by is hang-bys.

Words near hang-by in the dictionary

  1. hang'd
  2. hang, draw and quarter
  3. hang-around
  4. hang-arounds
  5. hang-bies
  6. hang-by
  7. hang-bys
  8. Hang-chau
  9. Hang-chou
  10. hang-dog
  11. hang-dogs

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: hang-by (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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