Word.ws English Dictionary

hanging out to dry

hanging out to dry is the present participle and gerund of hang out to dry.

Meaning of hang out to dry

Verb

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

  1. (idiomatic, transitive) To abandon someone who is in need or in danger, especially a colleague or one dependent.
    • I'll take advantage while / You hang me out to dry1989, Kurt Cobain, “About a Girl”, in Bleach, performed by Nirvana
  2. Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see hang, out, dry.

Questions about hanging out to dry

What is hanging out to dry the present participle and gerund of?
Hanging out to dry is the present participle and gerund of hang out to dry.

Words near hanging out to dry in the dictionary

  1. hanging one's lip
  2. hanging onto
  3. hanging out
  4. hanging out of one's arse
  5. hanging out one's shingle
  6. hanging out to dry
  7. hanging over
  8. hanging over someone's head
  9. hanging paragraph
  10. hanging paragraphs
  11. hanging parrot

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: hanging out to dry (page history and authors); hang out to dry (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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