DANGLING

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does dangling mean? 

• DANGLING (noun)
  The noun DANGLING has 1 sense:

1. the act of suspending something (hanging it from above so it moves freely)

  Familiarity information: DANGLING used as a noun is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• DANGLING (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

The act of suspending something (hanging it from above so it moves freely)

Classified under:

Nouns denoting acts or actions

Synonyms:

dangling; hanging; suspension

Context example:

there was a small ceremony for the hanging of the portrait

Hypernyms ("dangling" is a kind of...):

support; supporting (the act of bearing the weight of or strengthening)

Derivation:

dangle (cause to dangle or hang freely)

 Context examples 

He unfolded it and disclosed a golden pince-nez, with two broken ends of black silk cord dangling from the end of it.

(The Return of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

She was patching a pair of his trousers, while his lean body was distributed over two chairs, his feet dangling in dilapidated carpet-slippers over the edge of the second chair.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

A more absurd object than she presented cocked up there with her face convulsed with anger, her feet dangling, and her body rigid for fear of an upset, I could not imagine.

(The Lost World, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

To find out, they gathered bees from the wild and put them in a container in their lab where they were allowed to form a cluster, dangling from a movable apparatus.

(Bees Help Researchers Confirm Theory about Maintaining Protective Clumps under Tough Conditions, The Titi Tudorancea Bulletin)

The ears are long and dangling and the tail curves up like a saber.

(Otterhound, NCI Thesaurus)

Then he pushed him in head first, tied up the sack, and soon swung up the searcher after wisdom dangling in the air.

(Fairy Tales, by The Brothers Grimm)

He was dressed in a long gray gown, and wore a broad hat of the same color, much weather-stained, with three scallop-shells dangling from the brim.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

"Where, where?" shrieks Amy, staring out at two tall posts with a crossbeam and some dangling chains.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)

It was indeed our visitor of the afternoon who came bustling in, dangling his glasses more vigorously than ever, and with a very perturbed expression upon his aristocratic features.

(The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

They walk across the bright stage of English history with their finicky step, their preposterous cravats, their high collars, their dangling seals, and they vanish into those dark wings from which there is no return.

(Rodney Stone, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)