Word.ws English Dictionary

hang tight

hang tight verb: to wait, without attempting to address a challenging, alarming, or dangerous situation, until a later point in time.

Verb

hang tight (third-person singular simple present hangs tight, present participle hanging tight, simple past and past participle hung tight)

  1. (idiomatic, imperative, informal) To wait, without attempting to address a challenging, alarming, or dangerous situation, until a later point in time.
    • And should a really large payoff be hit, a jackpot, the machines will make a bunch of noise, a light may go off atop the machine and you just hang tight, a casino employee should be there soon to give you the payoff.2003, Avery Cardoza, Winning Casino Play, page 198
    • The day before I was supposed to fly out I called my friend Mike back home and explained what was happening and he told me to hang tight while he tried to figure out what to do, he knew his friend Phil who was an Ex Marine who once served under Mikes command, was working out here and luckily for me...2009, Karen Smith, Desert Rose, page 540
  2. To grasp tightly.
    • “Well, ya better hang tight cause when these boys take off yull be in fer the ride ofa lifetime.”2012, S. P. Foster, Phoenix on the Run, page 97
    • Then Lobo whispered to Mirella, “Hang tight,” and propelled the airbike forward, taking off with a loud roar of the engines. She didn't need to hang tight though because he crossed one arm over her chest and pressed her to him.2016, Monica La Porta, The Fifth Moon's Wolf

Examples of hang tight in a sentence

  • In the interim, you're going to have to hang tight, buddy.2011, Linda Castillo, Operation: Midnight Cowboy:
  • “Hang tight.” He heard the feet running away again.2012, David Baldacci ·, The Innocent:
  • In the meantime, you guys just hang tight until we get back with you.2014, Renaldo Martin, Sins Beneath the Cloth, page 190:
  • “I'm just saying hang tight till Monday.”2019, Ronan Farrow, Catch and Kill:

Forms of hang tight

third-person singular presenthangs tight
present participlehanging tight
past participlehung tight
pasthung tight

Origin of hang tight

From hang + tight, possibly in part from a blend of hang on + hold tight.

Questions about hang tight

What does hang tight mean?
Hang tight means to wait, without attempting to address a challenging, alarming, or dangerous situation, until a later point in time.
How do you use hang tight in a sentence?
In the interim, you're going to have to hang tight, buddy.
What part of speech is hang tight?
Hang tight is a verb.
What is the past tense of hang tight?
The past tense of hang tight is hung tight.

Words near hang tight in the dictionary

  1. hang paper
  2. hang round
  3. hang ten
  4. hang tens
  5. hang the moon
  6. hang tight
  7. hang time
  8. hang times
  9. hang to
  10. hang together
  11. hang tough

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: hang tight (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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Cite this entry: “hang tight.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/hang_tight. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.