Hang up means to end a phone call, and also to put clothes on a hanger or a hook. In the first meaning, often nothing follows “hang up”: She said goodbye and hung up. In the second, you name what you hang: hang up your jacket. The past form in both meanings is “hung up”.
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hang up (the phone); hang up on + person; hang up + coat/clothes; hang it up
- Before you hang up, could you send me the link to tomorrow's meeting?
- Please hang up your coats in the hall, because the meeting room is quite small.
What changed
First versionWait, don't put the phone. I'll find the address now.
RevisionWait, don't hang up. I'll find the address now.
After “put”, you need to say where, so “don't put the phone” sounds unfinished. British English has “put the phone down”, but the shortest and most natural way to say it is “don't hang up”.
Don't confuse it with “hang on”: that is how you ask someone to wait and stay on the line. Hang on a second, I'll get a pen means “wait a second”, while “hang up” means to end the call.
Your turn
My brother was so angry that he ___ me in the middle of a sentence.
Show the answer
hung up on — When someone ends a call while the other person is still talking, “hung up” needs “on”: “hung up on me”. Without “on”, it sounds as if my brother hung me up like a coat on a hook.
Describe a frustrating call to customer support, a bank or a delivery service. Say who hung up and why.
The delivery service kept me on hold for twenty minutes, so I hung up and wrote to them in the chat instead.
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