Meaning & use
hung the phone up
Last updated
“hung the phone up” is a form of “hang up”. See that entry for the full set of meanings.
Meaning
verbtransitive or intransitive
ended a phone call by putting the receiver down or pressing the button to disconnect
Grammar: The object can come before or after 'up': 'She hung the phone up' or 'She hung up the phone.'
Patterns
- hang the phone up
- hang up the phone
- hang up on someone
After saying goodbye, she hung the phone up and went back to work.
He was so angry that he hung the phone up without letting me explain.
I hung the phone up as soon as I heard the busy signal.
Word forms
| base form | hang up |
|---|---|
| third person singular | hangs up |
| past tense | hung up |
| past participle | hung up |
| -ing form | hanging up |
Common combinations
- hang up the phone
- Please hang up the phone when you finish the call.
- hang up on someone
- It's rude to hang up on someone in the middle of a sentence.
- hang up quickly
- She hung up quickly because she was late for class.
Synonyms and how they differ
- end a call
- This is more formal and does not specify how the call was ended.
- disconnect
- This is a general term for breaking a connection and can refer to phones, internet, or machines.
Opposites
Word family
- hang-up noun
- an emotional problem or a feeling of worry that someone has
Commonly confused: hung the phone up or hung?
hung the phone up vs hung
Remember that 'hung' is the past tense of 'hang' meaning to suspend or to end a call; 'hanged' is only used for execution by hanging.
Practice
She was so upset that she ______ the phone up before I could apologize.
Choose one answer.
'Hung' is the correct past tense of 'hang up' for ending a phone call. 'Hanged' is only used for execution, and 'hang' or 'hanging' do not fit the past tense here.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “hung the phone up”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.