hanger

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

• noun One who hangs something.
• noun A contrivance to which something hangs or by which something is hung, as.
• noun A device around which a garment is draped for hanging from a hook or rod.
• noun A loop or strap by which something is hung.
• noun A bracket on the spring shackle of a motor vehicle, designed to hold it to the chassis.
• noun A decorative strip of cloth hung on a garment or wall.
• noun A short sword that may be hung from a belt.

from The Century Dictionary.

• noun A vat in which skins are tanned by being suspended in the liquor.
• noun A long loop or looped rod which hangs from a transverse beam attached to a foundry crane, and which receives the trunnions of a molding-flask slung therefrom.
• noun One who hangs anything; one whose occupation is to hang something: as, a bell-hanger; a paper-hanger.
• noun One who hangs persons, or inflicts the penalty of hanging; a hangman.
• noun That which hangs or is suspended; specifically, a hanging or sloping wood or grove.
• noun A short cut-and-thrust sword, especially one worn by seamen and travelers.
• noun That from which something is hung or suspended.
• noun Specifically — A support for a line of shafting, consisting of a box for holding the shafting, an oiling device, etc., and supported by a bracket, by arms fixed to the ceiling, or on legs which rest on the floor. The term includes the whole apparatus, supports and all, whatever their shape.
• noun The lower part of the heddle of a loom.
• noun A chain or bent rod on which a pot or kettle is hung in the open fireplace of old-fashioned kitchens, by means of the pothook: hence used humorously in the phrase pothooks and hangers, the characters made by children in their first attempts to write.
• noun The arrangement of straps by which, in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, the rapier was hung from the belt: an appendage often made elaborate and ornamental.
• noun In tailoring, the loop or strap by which a coat or other garment is hung on a peg.
• noun In lace-making, one of those bobbins which lie straight down the cushion, as distinguished from the worker-bobbins, which are moved from side to side.
• noun The great seaweed, Laminaria digitata. The stem is woody, from 2 to 6 feet in length and from half an inch to nearly 2 inches in diameter. The frond is 6 or 8 feet in length and 2 feet broad, and olivaceous brown in color. When young the stems are sometimes eaten. It was once largely used in the manufacture of glass, supplying the alkali, but has now been superseded. It is also used for making handles for knives, for fuel, and for manure by the Highlanders. Also called tangle, sea-girdle, sea-staff, and sea-wand. See Laminaria.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

• noun One who hangs, or causes to be hanged; a hangman.
• noun That by which a thing is suspended.
• noun A strap hung to the girdle, by which a dagger or sword is suspended.
• noun (Mach.) A part that suspends a journal box in which shafting runs. See Illust. of Countershaft.
• noun A bridle iron.
• noun That which hangs or is suspended, as a sword worn at the side; especially, in the 18th century, a short, curved sword.
• noun engraving A steep, wooded declivity.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

• noun One who hangs, or causes to be hanged; a hangman.
• noun That by which a thing is suspended. Especially:
• noun That which hangs or is suspended, as a sword worn at the side; especially, in the 18th century, a short, curved sword.
• noun UK A steep, wooded declivity.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

• noun a worker who hangs something
• noun anything from which something can be hung