hug

Etymology

From earlier hugge (“to embrace, clasp with the arms”) (1560), probably representing a conflation of huck (“to crouch, huddle down”) and Old Norse hugga (“to comfort, console”), from hugr (“mind, heart, thought”), from Proto-Germanic *hugiz (“mind, thought, sense”), cognate with Icelandic hugga (“to comfort”), Old English hyġe (“thought”) (whence high (Etymology 2)).

noun

1. A close embrace, especially when charged with such an emotion as represented by: affection, joy, relief, lust, anger, aggression, compassion, and the like, as opposed to being characterized by formality, equivocation or ambivalence (a half-embrace or "little hug").
2. A particular grip in wrestling.

verb

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
   That is why they are so little known and never explored. During the day, when a Chilean cruiser nosed around uncomfortably close, the little sloop would be hugged under the lee of one of the islands, sail lowered and anchor dropped. 1892, Paul Boyton, The Story of Paul Boyton
   bright rocks whose stain of emerald or quartz shaft of shine the starfish hugged beneath the tide . 1892, The Sewanee Review - Volume 66, page 263
   She put her feet on a rung and hugged down against her knees, making herself even smaller. 2014, Thomas Gifford, The Cavanaugh Quest
   Zhai Tingshen stood at the window upstairs, his black eyes staring intently at the figure that was tightly hugged below. 2020, Zhenyinfang, Marital Passion
2. (intransitive) To cling closely together.
3. (transitive) To embrace by holding closely, especially in the arms.
   Billy hugged Danny until he felt better.
4. (transitive) To stay close to (the shore etc.)
   We toted in the wood and got the fire going nice and comfortable. Lord James still set in one of the chairs and Applegate had cabbaged the other and was hugging the stove. 1913, Joseph C. Lincoln, chapter 8, in Mr. Pratt's Patients
   Gourock also boasted a pier railway, although its pier hugged the shore rather than jutting into the bay. October 21 2020, Dr Joseph Brennan, “From the main line and over the waves”, in Rail, page 60
5. (transitive, figurative) To hold fast; to cling to; to cherish.