hanging

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

• noun A method of execution whereby the person is dropped and suspended from a rope around the neck, resulting in death from severing of the spinal cord, strangulation, or other causes.
• noun Something, such as a tapestry, that is hung.
• noun A descending slope or an inclination.
• adjective Situated, as on a steep slope, so as to appear to hang down.
• adjective Projecting downward or outward; overhanging.
• adjective Suited for holding something that hangs.
• adjective Baseball Being a pitch that fails to break as intended.
• adjective Deserving death by hanging.
• adjective Disposed to inflict severe sentences, such as death by hanging.

from The Century Dictionary.

• noun The act of suspending, or the state of being suspended.
• noun Specifically Suspension by the neck; particularly, capital punishment by suspension with strangulation, by means of a rope with a noose at one end which is placed about the neck, the other end being attached to a beam.
• noun That which hangs or is pendent.
• noun plural The material with which the walls of a room are draped or covered, including even paper which is pasted upon them, as in the term paper-hangings. See arras, tapestry, and curtain.
• noun plural The sloping side of a hill.
• Requiring or deserving punishment by the halter.
• Suggesting or foreboding death by the halter.
• Unfixed; floating.

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

• noun The act of suspending anything; the state of being suspended.
• noun Death by suspension; execution by a halter.
• noun That which is hung as lining or drapery for the walls of a room, as tapestry, paper, etc., or to cover or drape a door or window; -- used chiefly in the plural.
• adjective Requiring, deserving, or foreboding death by the halter.
• adjective Suspended from above; pendent.
• adjective Adapted for sustaining a hanging object.
• adjective a compass suspended so that the card may be read from beneath.
• adjective a garden sustained at an artificial elevation by any means, as by the terraces at Babylon.
• adjective See under Indentation.
• adjective (Arch.) that rail of a door or casement to which hinges are attached.
• adjective (Mining) the overhanging side of an inclined or hading vein.
• adjective Loose, flowing sleeves.
• adjective (Arch.) That upright of a window frame to which casements are hinged, or in which the pulleys for sash windows are fastened.
• adjective (Mining) the upper wall of inclined vein, or that which hangs over the miner's head when working in the vein.

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

• verb Present participle of hang.
• adjective Suspended.
• noun uncountable The act of hanging a person (or oneself) by the neck in order to execute that person (or to commit suicide).
• noun countable A public event at which a person is hanged.
• noun countable Anything wide, high and rather thin that is hung as a decorative element (such as curtains, gobelins, wallpaper or posters).
• noun uncountable The way in which hangings (decorations) are arranged.

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

• noun a form of capital punishment; victim is suspended by the neck from a gallows or gibbet until dead
• noun decoration that is hung (as a tapestry) on a wall or over a window
• noun the act of suspending something (hanging it from above so it moves freely)