hug

(hŭg)

v. hugged, hug·ging, hugs

v.tr.

1. To clasp or hold closely, especially in the arms, as in affection; embrace.

2. To hold steadfastly to; cherish: He still hugs his outmoded beliefs.

3. To stay close to: a sailboat hugging the shore.

v.intr.

To embrace or cling together closely.

1. A close, affectionate embrace.

2. A crushing embrace, as in wrestling.

[Probably of Scandinavian origin; akin to Old Norse hugga, to comfort.]

hug′ga·ble adj.

hug′ger n.

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

ThesaurusAntonymsRelated WordsSynonymsLegend:

Noun

hugging - affectionate play (or foreplay without contact with the genital organs)

caressing, cuddling, fondling, kissing, petting, smooching, snuggling, necking

arousal, stimulation - mutual sexual fondling prior to sexual intercourse

snogging - (British informal) cuddle and kiss

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References in classic literature

Indeed, partly lying on it as the arm did when I first awoke, I could hardly tell it from the quilt, they so blended their hues together; and it was only by the sense of weight and pressure that I could tell that Queequeg was hugging me.

At length, by dint of much wriggling, and loud and incessant expostulations upon the unbecomingness of his hugging a fellow male in that matrimonial sort of style,

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But presently I looked over my shoulder, and saw him going on again towards the river, still hugging himself in both arms, and picking his way with his sore feet among the great stones dropped into the marshes here and there, for stepping-places when the rains were heavy, or the tide was in.

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Mary Jane she went for him, Susan and the hare-lip went for the duke, and then such another hugging and kissing I never see yet.

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Thurid was hugging the shore, and as he passed out of sight round a near-by promontory I shoved one of the boats into the water and, calling Woola into it, pushed out from shore.

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One morning he saw Teeka squatted upon a low branch hugging something very close to her hairy breast-- a wee something which squirmed and wriggled.

Teeka, seeing that Tarzan had turned back toward the trees, had halted in the center of the clearing, and there she sat hugging her balu and casting suspicious glances here and there.

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Natasha wept, sitting on the blue-striped feather bed and hugging her friend.

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Then he felt himself gently lifted until he was swaying in the air, with the folds of the leaf hugging him on all sides.

Nearer and nearer came the sounds and then they seemed to be just the other side of the leaf that was hugging him.

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"For the first time, I understood the difference between hugging and piling on," Modi had quipped.

'Modi ji needs love', says Rahul Gandhi