hanger-on

hanger-on

English

Etymology

Agent noun of hang on.

Noun

hanger-on (plural hangers-on)

1. Someone who hangs on, or sticks to, a person, place, or service.
   • c. 1760-1774, Oliver Goldsmith, An Elegy on the Glory of her Sex, Mrs Mary Blaze:

     Her love was sought, I do aver, / By twenty beaux and more; / The king himself has follow'd her / When she has walk'd before. / But now her wealth and finery fled, / Her hangers-on cut short all […]

   • 1895, Benjamin Disraeli, Sybil: Or; The Two Nations, page 161:

     Not that he was what is commonly called a Screw; that is to say he was not a mere screw; but he was acute and malicious; saw everybody's worth and position at a glance; could not bear to expend his choice wines and costly viands on hangers-on and toadeaters, though at the same time no man encouraged and required hangers-on and toadeaters more.

   • 1939 September, D. S. Barrie, “The Railways of South Wales”, in Railway Magazine, page 158:

     The Rhymney (51 route miles), once an impecunious hanger-on of the Taff Vale, had enjoyed its own route through Caerphilly into Cardiff since 1871, [...].

2. (mining, historical) An onsetter.

Synonyms

• onhanger

Translations

Someone who hangs on, or sticks

Bulgarian: натрапник (bg) m (natrapnik) Cebuano: kuyog baboy Chinese: Mandarin: 客 (zh) (kè) Dutch: klit (nl) m French: crampon (fr) m German: Trabant (de) m Irish: angarúinneach m, baoiteálaí m, gabhgaire m, líodrálaí m, sáilghiolla m, táthaire m Italian: tirapiedi (it) m or f, ruffiano (it) m, scagnozzo (it) m Japanese: 取り巻き (とりまき, torimaki) Latin: assecula m Norwegian: påheng Persian: سوری‎ (fa) (sûrî) Russian: нахле́бник (ru) m (naxlébnik) Spanish: acoplado (es) m

See also

• flunky

Anagrams

• on-hanger, onhanger