Word.ws English Dictionary

hugging

/ˈhʌɡɪŋ/

hugging is the present participle and gerund of hug.

Meaning of hug

Verb

hug (third-person singular simple present hugs, present participle hugging, simple past and past participle hugged)

  1. (intransitive, obsolete) To crouch; to huddle as with cold.
    • They had a slight breast work, and they hugged down behind it and waited.1885, M. Quad, Field, Fort and Fleet, page 354
    Synonyms:
    hunker, squat, stoop
  2. (intransitive) To cling closely together.
    Synonyms:
    cleave
  3. (reciprocal, transitive) To embrace by holding closely, especially in the arms.
    • Billy hugged Danny until he felt better.
    Synonyms:
    accoll
  4. (transitive) To stay close to.
    • to hug the shore, to hug the coastline
  5. (figuratively, transitive) To hold fast; to cling to; to cherish.
    • We hug intellectual deformities, if they bear our names1665, Joseph Glanvill, Scepsis Scientifica: Or, Confest Ignorance, the Way to Science; […], London: […] E. C[otes] for Henry Eversden […], →OCLC
    Synonyms:
    treasure

See all 7 meanings of hug

Noun

hugging (countable and uncountable, plural huggings)

  1. The act of giving a hug.
    • There began to be some movement preparatory to the resumption of our journey, and, after many huggings and kissings, the family parted, and the wagon drove off[…]1844, Catharine Maria Sedgwick, Tales and Sketches

Forms of hugging

pluralhuggings

Words formed from hugging

Phrases with hugging

Words that rhyme with hugging

Questions about hugging

What does hugging mean?
Hugging means the act of giving a hug.
What is hugging the present participle and gerund of?
Hugging is the present participle and gerund of hug.
What part of speech is hugging?
Hugging is a noun.
How do you pronounce hugging?
Hugging is pronounced /ˈhʌɡɪŋ/.
What is the plural of hugging?
The plural of hugging is huggings.

Words near hugging in the dictionary

  1. huggier
  2. huggies
  3. huggiest
  4. huggin'
  5. hugginess
  6. hugging
  7. hugging it out
  8. hugging oneself
  9. huggingly
  10. huggings
  11. Huggins

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: hugging (page history and authors); hug (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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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-hugging.wav.

Cite this entry: “hugging.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/hugging. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.