Word.ws English Dictionary

hung up

hung up is the simple past and past participle of hang up.

Adjective

hung up (comparative more hung up, superlative most hung up)

  1. (slang) Having a hang-up, or emotional difficulty.
    • Gee, why are you still so hung up about missing those end-of-year activities?
    • And I wouldn't catch you hung up on somebody that you used to know [...]2011, Gotye, Gotye - Somebody That I Used to Know (feat. Kimbra) [Official Music Video] (yt)
  2. (not comparable) In a position such that the path to the desired base is blocked by a fielder holding the ball; caught in a rundown.
    • Snap throw to first, and they’ve got Sanchez hung up.
  3. (slang, usually, with-on) In love.
    • I'm hung up on Terry.
    • I've been so hung up on the idea of being a couple.

Meaning of hang up

Verb

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

  1. (idiomatic, transitive) To put up to hang.
    • I hung up my wash on the line.
  2. (ambitransitive, idiomatic) To terminate a telephone call, originally by hanging the receiver on its hook or cradle thereby automatically disconnecting the line.
    • When my mother started telling me to be careful over the phone, I threatened to hang up on her.
    Synonyms:
    ring off
  3. (figuratively, idiomatic, intransitive) To stop talking.
  4. (colloquial, idiomatic, transitive) To keep delayed, suspended, held up, or stuck.
    • Seeing you's all I've been thinking about. You know I wouldn't hang you up this way if it wasn't for a damned good reason.1986, Charlotte Vale Allen, Time/Steps, page 396
  5. (idiomatic) To rob or mug (someone).
  6. (idiomatic) To arrest (someone); to send (someone) to prison.
    • So call up Trudy on the telephone / Send her a letter in the mail / Tell her I'm hung up in Dallas / They won't let me out of this jail1971, Charlie Daniels, “Trudy”, in Charlie Daniels

See all 8 meanings of hang up

Forms of hung up

comparativemore hung up
superlativemost hung up

Questions about hung up

What does hung up mean?
Hung up means having a hang-up, or emotional difficulty.
What is hung up the simple past and past participle of?
Hung up is the simple past and past participle of hang up.
What part of speech is hung up?
Hung up is an adjective.

Words near hung up in the dictionary

  1. hung ten
  2. hung the moon
  3. hung to
  4. hung together
  5. hung tough
  6. hung up
  7. hung up one's boots
  8. hung up one's fiddle
  9. hung up one's hat
  10. hung up one's spurs
  11. hung up the boots

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: hung up (page history and authors); hang up (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: “hung up.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/hung_up. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.