hanger-on

English

Alternative forms

• hanger on

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) (suri)
• Russian: нахле́бник (ru) m (naxlébnik)
• Spanish: acoplado (es) m

See also

• flunky

Anagrams

• on-hanger, onhanger